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 ...
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 ...
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.
Organising Dynamics
Here’s a link for anyone who might be interested to one of the draft chapters for the book I am writing, Smart Working: Creating The Next Wave. I realise that this book, like many based on theory and practical reflection, makes demands of readers. I know that the intended audience, busy managers, are pushed for time. Are you familiar with The Reduced Shakespeare Company? Their Hamlet in two minutes... [Read more]
Bandura And Social Cognitive Theory
I had already decided that I was going to write a post about Albert Bandura and social learning. Time to do it now, since @jclarey asks “Were Bandura and Vygotsky full of shit?” I really don’t know about Vygotsky (I don’t know his work) but I have been a fan of Albert Bandura since I stumbled on his stuff on self-efficacy fifteen years ago. Makes sense to me; what he says... [Read more]
Why Another Business Book?
In particular why another business book when best-selling books hold up companies, including Enron, as exemplary in some fashion before they go on to fail or underperform ? What is the point when so many iconic companies are in trouble today? Why despite so much accumulated advice and good practice is there so much bad management practice around? In the face of such tumultuous environmental change... [Read more]
Critical Thinking In Practice
A recent article in the New York Times claims that the idea that business education should be about how to think critically and creatively was “radical” when Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management had an ‘aha’ insight on patterns of thinking a decade ago. According to the article, critical thinking skills include how to frame questions, how to question assumptions,... [Read more]
Collaboration By Design
I was listening to someone on the radio talking about the attempted bombing of the Detroit-bound aircraft. Commenting on the failure to integrate intelligence, the speaker said that the culture in the CIA prior to 9/11 was “need to know” and that the agency had not made the transition to “need to share”. Have Wiki, Will Collaborate? Some people at the CIA are already well... [Read more]
Getting On With It In 2010
Well, that it is once I have delivered the text of my first book to the publishers, Gower, at the end of March. For me 2010 will be the year of intensive doing, helping businesses develop management and learning environments that enable them to do what they do better or differently. This sounds insultingly simple. Of course it is not, otherwise we would not be reading about so many failures of governance... [Read more]