Archive

Corporate Culture – I’ll just have a good one, please

Yesterday evening I was trying to help one of a group of incredibly capable  postgraduates from Manchester Business School who have been working with us to refine his research questions for the next assignment in his master’s programme. Continue reading ‘Corporate Culture – I’ll just have a good one, please’

Corporate Culture Paralysis in the Public Sector

Dangerously little is happening out there in the Public Sector.  Sure, the essentials continue – the trams are running and the bins are being emptied.

But person after person I contact is on accumulated leave, or out at meetings, or at a training session, or simply on voice mail………and emails themselves are going unanswered by the dozen. Those I speak to privately say that many things are grinding to a virtual halt. Continue reading ‘Corporate Culture Paralysis in the Public Sector’

What Drives Us Is More Productive Than What Drives Me

A Book Review of Daniel Pink’s DRIVE.

I’ve just got round to reading Daniel Pink’s book Drive, subtitled The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

He identifies the key drivers to people doing better things (primarily at work) and feeling better about things as Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

Autonomy is having a strong degree of personal direction, Mastery is having room to grow and to keep becoming better and Purpose is keeping a balancing act between a relentless profit motive and an eye to a greater good.

Continue reading ‘What Drives Us Is More Productive Than What Drives Me’

Is it Hard? Is it Soft? No, it’s a Whole!

- Any organisation is one thing. We must never forget that it is only our metaphors that make it seem many things.

I was at a seminar on Agile Business Processes at the Daresbury Innovation Campus yesterday. I like going to stuff there – the cross-fertilisation of people, ideas and subjects is hugely stimulating.

Continue reading ‘Is it Hard? Is it Soft? No, it’s a Whole!’