Smart Work Company Manifesto Re-visited
Social Environment And Health Skimming articles in a futile attempt to keep up with workplace trends, I discovered a gem of a paper by Professor Sir Michael Marmot. Published in the Lancet in 2006, the article is entitled 'Health In An Unequal World' and is the text of a lecture given to the Royal College of Physicians. In the article, Professor Marmot is clear that social environment is a crucial influencer and determinant of health. He says: "The unnecessary disease and suffering of disadvantaged people, whether in poor countries or rich, is a result of the way we organise our affairs in ...
The Smart Work Learning Place
For the past four years I have been co-facilitating a research and learning network for senior IT, HR and Facilities Managers, the Global Moblity Network, which has been exploring global workplace trends. For example, these are the topics for a series of meetings in September.
Executive Work-Based Learning
I have been writing about smart working - what it is, why it matters, exploring first wave smart working methods, and suggesting that this knowledge can be re-interpreted and applied in a second, social computing-fuelled wave. Nothing New Under The Sun Much of what I read from the big business schools and consultancies is repetitive. My own blogs have become repetitive. A lot has been said before and is frequently nothing more than the same old stuff re-branded. See for example Freedom-based management (my doctoral thesis explored how to optimise local autonomy, self-determination and self management with simultaneous, centralised co-ordination). Time to ...
Smart Working: Learn From The Past
I said in the previous post that I would write this one about the Viable Systems Model but I will save that for next time. I just wrote a very quick summary of my book in an email to a friend, and thought I might as well post it here. What it boils down to is this: (1) Lean, quality and agile manufacturing were the last big disruptive management innovation. (2) Engaging people in sharing their tacit... [Read more]
Enterprise 2.0 Needs To Do Better
Enterprise 2.0 should be more integrated with business processes, so said several blogs summing up after the recent conference in Boston. How is it possible not to think about Enterprise 2.0 and business processes in the same breath? I said as much in a comment on Andrew McAfee’s blog. Business process = interactions among people. Business process innovation is about doing better or doing differently. “Enterprise... [Read more]
Smart Working
What Is It? Smart working behaviours from people with agile minds, and who work with adaptive systems, enable customer-focused performance. This includes innovating, sensing, adapting, coordinating, collaborating, integrating and learning. Distributed Performance Systems Smart working is a function of distributed performance systems, which include people, technologies and congenial, socially engaging... [Read more]
On Gaining Clarity And Direction
Serendipity is great thing. One of the delights of following smart people on Twitter is discovering new insights and new people. I am indebted to Gordon Rae (@socialtechno) for introducing me to Lauren and Sarah of Snook, and from there into the emerging phenomenon of Service Design. “Service design is a relatively new discipline that asks some fundamental questions: what should the customer... [Read more]
Life, Death And Viability Part 2
I started telling you Delia’s story in the last post. She is a senior nurse who decided to change the way things were done when she took over responsibility for a disorganised and chaotic ward. She set in motion a textbook perfect culture change effort, and did it instinctively. The first thing she tackled was changing attitudes and behaviour towards absence. This had not gone down well. Some... [Read more]
Life, Death And Viability: Delia’s Story
You might realise, if you have been reading my recent ramblings, that I am wrestling with the subject of viability. Organisations cease to be viable if they cannot withstand shocks coming at them from the external environment. Think about the effects of the recent turmoil in the global financial system on business viability. It seems to me that threats to viability are as likely to come from within.... [Read more]
Viable Smart Networks (1)
Just to warn you that this is a long post, which I am chunking into two separate posts. This one reviews the issue of autonomy-control-empowerment and reviews the Viable Systems Model (VSM). This sets the scene for the following post, which proposes that the VSM might be more appropriately viewed, to reflect current global workplace trends, as the VSN model (Viable Smart Networks). Many thanks if... [Read more]