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Do Dragons Nurture Ideas or Slaughter Them?

28 November, 2013 by James Lawther 8 Comments

The dragon

Imagine you are an entrepreneur You have a great idea that needs funding, what do you do? Find a venture capitalist or business angel and ask them to invest.  The chances are the first one will say no, but if it is a good idea and you ask ten dragons then maybe one will say […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: back to the floor, capital investment, innovation, management style, work out

Management: Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing?

10 November, 2013 by James Lawther 14 Comments

class room size

Good management is a good thing and organisations have a shortage of “talent”.  Having more and better managers is critical to success. So you should put all your effort into hiring and developing breadth and depth of leadership. Really, is more always more? In his book David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell discusses school class sizes. Conventional […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, management style, organisation, silo management, spans of control

The Demons of Management

31 October, 2013 by James Lawther 6 Comments

sins of management

Why is operational improvement so difficult?  Maybe it is because we are our own worst enemies.  Here are a handful of our own organisational demons. Dogmatism ~ an unquestioning belief in our own “rightness” Instead of questioning our own beliefs we plough on regardless.  The more senior we are the more dogmatic we become, after […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: management style, systems thinking

Bonsai Management

13 October, 2013 by James Lawther 12 Comments

Bonsai Tree

I have started growing bonsai trees.  It is immensely satisfying and the results are beautiful.  It is not too difficult, this is how you do it… Pick a plant species that responds well Carefully trim back its roots and branches Choose a small container to constrain growth Plant in well-drained soil Feed and water regularly […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: conformity, empowerment, management style, organisation, performance management

How do you Make a Pencil?

27 August, 2013 by James Lawther 5 Comments

In 1958 Leonard E Read wrote an essay about making pencils. He described: The growing of trees The work of a lumberjack The operation of the saw mill The making of the saw The transportation of the logs The mining of the graphite The production of the rubber The mixing of the paint The sourcing […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: ignorance, learning, management by wandering around, management style, systems thinking, video

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