Structural failures leading to change failures In the previous blog I described the book, The Blunders of our Governments by Prof. Anthony King and Sir Ivor Crewe which describes a series of major blunders by our governments. The third part of their book covers the systemic failures (as opposed to the human failures) which have …
Category archives: Book Review
Avoiding Blunders
Blunder: a spectacular change failure A book I have just finished reading contains some excellent ideas for avoiding a complete failure in a change. The book, The Blunders of our Governments by Prof. Anthony King and Sir Ivor Crewe describes a series of major blunders by our governments. In each case a government minister set …
Do you know why?
Why is it important? Three things popped into my mind this week: a paper in the recent Sloan Management Review about the basic question every project should answer; a graphic in a book about project types due to Eddie Obeng; and recollections about reviewing projects. They all revolve around the question ‘why are we doing …
Quick, effective decision making
Good enough decisions Making decisions in a fast moving change initiative with deadlines and issues is very hard. Making the best decisions is impossible. Yet most managers in a change are hung out to dry for their bad decisions (with hindsight). A re-think about decision making and the culture around it is needed to improve …
Strategic change journey
Internal strategic change for fast growth I have written in the past about the need for change in an organisation being driven by strategic change outside. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review on Transient Advantage by Rita Gunther McGrath (one of my favourite management authors) shows that there are internal drivers for change …
Mid-Level Managers: the new superhero
Mid Level Managers as Superhero In a recent blog post on the Harvard Business Review web site Behnam Tabrizi reported on some research he had undertaken on why change and innovation (a pre-curser to change) didn’t work. The article is focused on Leadership but I found some powerful snippets about doing change.
Its the activities that count
Strategic Change The key to a successful strategic change is to change the things that matter to an organisation’s survival; and leave the things that don’t matter to operations. In his seminal paper ‘What is strategy?‘ Michael Porter argues that effective operations is necessary for survival, but not sufficient. Strategy is always needed. So I …
WRAP up your change
Have you discovered the Heath Brothers? I hadn’t until I read an article in the McKinsey Quarterly Journal for April this year called ‘Making Great Decisions‘. The brothers have written 3 books and their latest is on decision making. This is a particular interest of mine as it relates to inherent team performance. The Heath …
Change Analytics
Businesses are starting to make their use of big data a competitive advantage. A recent report from the MIT SLoan School of Management investigates the use of data in organisations (not just business). In the Economist recently they reported on the use of data in social science. For instance an analysis of mobile phone records …
Strategy and change
I teach a course on strategy in a local management centre so I am keen on the link between strategy, change and operational excellence. I have just read a review in the Economist of a new book on strategy by A. G. Lafley and Roger Martin in which they describe how they turned Proctor & …