Big Teams - Barriers to Innovation?
In his recent post “Is Design a Team Sports?”, Idris Mootee discusses the role of the individual designer versus a design team. During that discussion he broaches the question as to whether large teams are barriers to innovation. I think that there is a semantic trap in the question, becuase it potentially blurs the [...]
The evolution of the organization – Part 3
The third phase began to emerge in the literature around the late 80s and early 90s and is now becoming more recognized in the life of corporations. I have called this stage the Spiritual stage, not because of its relationship to religion or any specific spiritual path, but because it has all the elements found [...]
The evolution of the organizations – Part 2
The second major stage of organization model started to emerge around the middle of the 20th century. It was heralded by the work of the humanist psychologist like Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and applied to organization life by people like McGregor and Herzberg.
This movement, if one wants to call it that, added another component to [...]
The evolution of organizations – Part 1
Organizations have gone through two major evolutionary transitions over the last 100 years. The first was the foundation of the modern organization around the turn of the 20th century.
This was the time of Henry Ford and the mass production. It saw the emergence of Frederick Taylor and the scientific method of management. It viewed the [...]
The challenge of new business paradigms
I recently gave a presentation on the third evolution of business, what I call the Spiritual Phase of organizations. (For more on this look for a future article to be published on our website.)
While many in the audience clearly understood how organizations have evolved from the Machine Phase to the Humanist Phase and we are [...]
Improving Your Company’s Velocity - Practice, Practice, Practice
Not only is it a way to get to Carnegie Hall, but focused, repeated practice of your firm’s best business processes is one of the ways to improve your overall velocity. In sports, it’s called establishing “muscle memory” by the repeated execution of a golf or tennis swing (for example), first working on the [...]
The challenge of silos
Everyone who has ever worked in an organization knows the challenge of silos. That is the condition when organizations operate form the perspective of their own functional unit, without seemingly little regard for the needs of other organizational units.
There is almost always an issue of “silo mentality” as one of the key issues an organization [...]
The power of a team and it’s Leader
The power of A TeamToday being the Super Bowl I thought it appropriate to comment on the unique characteristics of the Teams. There is one team that everyone was talking about leading up to today’s game; the New England Patriots.But there was another team out there today one that not many people gave any real [...]
Is Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) the next evolution - Part 2
Why should I care about Spiritual Intelligence, especially in business? The simple answer is because it will increase velocity.
The number one requirement for every organization is to achieve the desired results; the bottom line is the bottom line. And the faster an organization can move through its process the greater will be its return. [...]
Is Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) the next evolution? - Part 1
Hi all, I am back from my week long spiritual retreat and a week of catching up for being gone for a week.
This morning I picked up a book that has been sitting around for over 6 months and I was really blown away. It is called Spiritual Capital by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshal. [...]