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Organisational Mechanics

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A World Without Objectives

8 December, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Marionette

Objectives: could we manage without them? How would we cope?  The guys in H.R. would throw up their hands in horror. We couldn’t rate our staff. Pay for performance would flounder. Annual appraisals would become a farce. We wouldn’t know what we were doing. How could we manage our businesses? But how do we manage with objectives? They just get […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: collaboration, command and control, human nature, objective setting, reinforcing behaviour, trust

Does All That “Structure” Help?

26 September, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Escapology

Organisations are complicated They have: Customer requirements Partner requirements Legal requirements Compliance requirements Legacy systems Specialist teams Obsolete databases Competitive pressure Profitability problems And all those competing priorities are in conflict with each other. How do we manage complexity? By creating process and structure: RACI frameworks Target Operating Models Interim targets Delegated authority levels KPIs Heads […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, blame, business process management, collaboration, command and control, complexity, constraints, office productivity, performance management, systems thinking, teamwork

Pride and Ignorance

29 June, 2016 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Scurvy isn’t nice If you are unfortunate enough to contract it you will start to feel tired. Then you will develop spots on your skin and your gums will turn spongy. A week or so later you will start to bleed from your mucous membranes and your skin will turn yellow.  Eventually sufferers develop open […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: command and control, gemba, group think, human nature, ignorance, innovation, no substitute for experience, nothing new under the sun, political will

Corporate Cancer

10 April, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

anxiety

Fear and anxiety We have all heard of a “culture of fear”, but does fear really exist in our organisations? Fear Fear is a physical response danger, a reaction to an immediate issue that threatens your safety and security.  It is fear that overcomes you when you are walking home late at night, all by yourself […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, command and control, fear and anxiety, human nature, incentives, management style, performance management, systems thinking

Do You Have to Control Everything?

31 March, 2014 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Command and Control

If there is one thing that upsets me… Really upsets me it is being controlled.  Being told where I have to be, when I have to be there, what I need to do, which meeting I need to go to… I hate being controlled. Of course it cuts both ways.  If I am hell-bent on […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, command and control, do as I say, empowerment, human nature, management style, trust

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