Archives
The Chameleon Law
In the 1944 unfinished novel Mount Analogue, René Daumal describes the travel of a company of eight, who set sail in the yacht Impossible to search for Mount Analogue, a solid, a geographical place that “cannot not exist.”
Stress is the Fever of Burnout
A few weeks ago I posted my thoughts on employee burnout and Dr. Beverly Potter was kind enough to post a comment. According to her it is a common misconception that stress causes burnout. As she continues: “Stress and burnout are not the same. Burnout is a kind of job depression and is caused by feeling […]
Grumpy Boss or Turbo Manager?
Every once in a while I meet bosses and project managers who are very tired and extremely grumpy. You probably have met these kinds of managers too or maybe you are one of them.
Fine as North Dakota Wine
In his 2007 book Mindless Eating, Cornell Professor Brian Wansink reports that changing the label on a wine changes diners’ opinions of their wine, opinions of their meal, and their complete dining experience that night. Forty-one diners at the Spice Box restaurant in Urbana, Illinois were given a free glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany […]
Teaching versus Learning
People often ask me why I always refer to ‘Learning’ instead of ‘Training’ when we discuss the Organizational Change Management portfolio. That is because 99% of what ‘Learning’ really is occurs outside of the classroom.
The Hawthorne Effect
One of the biggest names in the history of management is not the name of a guru but the name of a factory: Hawthorne Works. This is the factory where a series of experiments on factory workers were carried out between 1924 and 1932. There were many types of experiments conducted on the employees, but […]
Pay Attention to your Attention
Sometimes people look at me strange when I mention the importance of psychological safety during organizational change projects. It is a term that I borrowed from the writings of Edgar Schein. Until now I didn’t find a way to explain in plain English what exactly I understand under that term. Strange and expensive words come […]
Useful Insights from Employee Burnout
Research suggests that the level of autonomy or job-control determines the level of stress and burnout to a larger extent than job-demand or complexity. For managers there is a lesson in there: Respect.
Attention – The Forgotten Resource
Management is not a science like mathematics or quantum physics, but sometimes the truth comes to the forefront like laws of nature.
Dump your Blackberry and get a life!
Nowadays it’s hard to look past the “buzzy” people who are eagerly typing with both thumbs on their Blackberry device. In a restaurant, at the airport, in the car, at the dinner table or even on a day out with their family. These people are at work: controlling their workload, arranging their schedules and meeting […]
