Lest anyone think I’ve taken leave of my senses, what I’m calling “crocodile management” has a well-established basis in neuroscience. Let me explain. Organisational change may often be in dynamic interplay with organisational conservation; think small innovations...
There is widespread agreement that the art of building effective teams involves being clear about collective and individual objectives. What happens to sustaining and building effective teams in times of anxiety-inducing change when mergers, new roles, new processes...
When leaders want to make their organisations more efficient in realising strategic goals, many of them resort to behaviourist, carrot-and-stick approaches. However, there’s a big problem: despite all the scientific-sounding talk of “measurable” KPIs and clearly...
Is an organisation a kind of ‘organism’ surviving in a changing environment? That metaphor has gained a great deal of currency over the years. However, organisational development innovator Dr Gervase Bush thinks it’s outlived its usefulness. It invites a “diagnostic”...
Conventional wisdom holds that leaders who “walk the talk” – who demonstrate consistency and congruence in what they say, do and believe – set the best examples for others. There’s a lot of truth in this, but I’d like to make a plea for the opposite: talking the walk....
It’s no exaggeration to claim that behaviourist-informed approaches to culture change still dominate the field. The problem is that they don’t work: phrases such as “managing people”, “shaping behaviours” and “driving change” share assumptions that people are passive...