I wrote this article a long time ago. It’s about the management changes needed when growing an organization. As I thought about it, I realised there wasn’t one article but several – one for each stage of development. In 1972 Larry Greiner placed an article with this title in the Harvard Business Review. He wrote about the different management requirements as the organization grew. In fact, he went further and said the different skills needed at each stage, carried the seeds of their own destruction. As the organization succeeded and grew, the skills that made that possible poisoned the body corporate. Greiner illustrated it excellently in a diagram like this. Each phase has its own needs to create growth, but that management style eventually strangles growth.
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There is no standing still
In the world of business and increasingly in public organizations, 99% as good as the best is simply not good enough. Only the best is remembered and gets 80-90% of the business. All the rest scrabble for the 10%. World class performance is about having that small advantage and using it well, time after time. Not that I’m suggesting one small advantage will keep you in front for very long. Your advantage needs to be one that continually renews, expands and refreshes. No time to rest on your laurels, there is no standing still.
Continue readingSteam technology, Institutional Orthodoxy and UK Productivity
Sometimes history has a resonance with events today. Historians say you can’t understand today without knowing about yesterday. I’ve always been more interested in tomorrow, perhaps I missed a trick. But I was struck by England’s amazing success in becoming the major economic power in the world, and the contrast now with decades, or a century, of our productivity nightmare. Poor productivity costs everyone, employee, employer and Government, a massive amount of money. We need to fix it to be able to afford the Welfare State to which we think we are entitled. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingA Consultant’s Dream
“Employee engagement” is a management consultant’s dream! It brings so many advantages, produces such amazing bottom line results, why hasn’t everyone bought into it? Why do very savvy senior businesspeople think a 10% improvement is what to expect? Scepticism. A perfectly healthy buyer scepticism. The lure of gold created a rising tide of Consultants eager to service the need. You just needed to read a book or two after all.
Continue readingPrejudice And Expectation
Of course, we all carry our prejudices and stereotypical views around with us. Some of these are from “expert” sources. A few years ago, a notable German airline gave a booklet on local customs to its passengers to the UK. It was amusing to read that we English, eat Fish & Chips from newspaper followed by tea and cake around 4pm. Everyone knows Health & Safety have banned newspaper food wrappers! No doubt the English have their own, equally weird stereotypes. Some time ago I went to a famously foul-mouthed comic’s show and joined in the laughter at the stereotypical French jokes. These same jokes would have drawn the same audience response three hundred years ago! Perhaps it is lazy and comforting to have knee-jerk stereotypical responses. It helps to bond us together as a team, as a group, as an organisation, or nation. To make an inclusive group you must exclude others. Very often, our prejudices are hidden in our stereotypes. This is a block to creativity and blunts progress.
Continue readingProductivity Enhancement
A version of this article first appeared in 2010, and was written, tongue-in-cheek, to warn of impending lunacy. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should! Any similarity with trade names or organisations is purely coincidental. It appears the UK economy has started to grow again! Sooner or later, organisations will come up against capacity constraints. It is usually the case that unused capacity becomes lost capacity. The assumption that you had the capacity two years ago so still have it today, is just that, an assumption. To help bring up general productivity levels, to boost capacity, we suggest you think about the three techniques below and what they can do to your organisation’s performance. Financial Incentives In the industrial setting, we need to make widgets more cheaply than our competitors. The following story shows a solution. A keyboard manufacturer had to ensure the availability of all the parts needed to make a keyboard. In order to maximise efficiency, they have dedicated moulding machines, one for each key, one for each part of the case. The operators of the machines are extremely skilled. By careful adjustments to the machines, they can change the machine’s performance. Therefore, a financial […]
Continue readingThe Honest Manager
Is this such a shocking title? It created a storm of comments when posted on social media. Do managers still think they need to hide their human self, to act like invulnerable superheroes? You know that people, human beings, are quite good judges of people. You know changing a bad opinion takes a long time. Why not just be the best human you can. Think carefully about your actions and decisions, and always be ready to explain why you made those choices. You won’t always be right. Just so long as you made the decision for good reasons, your people will still believe in you.
Continue readingA quiet chat with your manager
How do you feel when your manager has asked for a quiet chat? Are worried or excited? Is it unusual for your manager to talk to you or is it normal? Do you think over all the things that didn’t go so well lately? Do you think of all the things that have gone well? Are you expecting punishment or pain?!
Continue readingAutomation
More thoughts on automation. This could be a great boon to mankind. But if we’re as good at managing robots as we are at people management then it will be a bane of society. Thought is needed about what you are doing!
Continue readingOrganizational Sludge
As an organization ages it accumulates sludge. Sludge is something that the organization once need to do, it solved a need, but things have changed. Sludge is what remains. It slows down processes, absorbs effort, blunts productivity and, of course, loses profitability. Enjoy the video!
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