Speaking of Faulty Assumptions - A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 14, 2008 

We’ve been talking about faulty assumptions and problem framing this week.  When we misfire on root cause, we can harm people with misguided ”therapies”.  
What conclusion do you jump to when you see the image below?  Invest 10 seconds to see if you are right.

 
 

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Requisite Weekend Transformation? How Are You Framing Your Organizational Issues?

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 12, 2008 

Folklore has it that Elliott Jaques, the author of the meta model, Requisite Organization, used to say you could transform an organization over the weekend by restructuring an organization to align with the requisite model.
Requisite Organization Design Principles
That means, among other things, re-aligning as necessary to meet the three requisite organization design criteria.
Conceptually this is true, [...]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Felt Fair Compensation, Requisite Organization, Work Levels | 2 Comments

Requisite Organization Resources - Talent Management, Accountability, and More

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 10, 2008 

For those of you interested in Requisite Organization, Don and Bonnie Fowke, management consultants from the New Management Network, are hosting a weekly internet radio show exploring various management topics and methodologies.
Below are summaries of their last two shows.  You can access them here.
Talent Management
Don Fowke of Toronto explores how a talent management program ensures companies [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management | 4 Comments

Male Boss or Female Boss? A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 7, 2008 

As a blogger I try to not only to be an observer of human and organizational behavior but also to offer practical, actionable solutions to all that ails organizations.  
Warning - The clip below is merely a comedian’s observations with no actionable content whatsoever.  You can take it for what it is - a hoot!  Or you [...]

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The Employee Contract - Are We Buying Outputs or Renting Capability?

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 4, 2008 

Expanding upon my last post on managerial accountability … when you hire an employee, my friend and colleague Herb Koplowitz says, “You are renting employee capability not buying outputs.”
Herb helped write the FAQ section for the Global Organization Design Society which has just redesigned its website.  Check it out here.  It has a large, free video [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management | 2 Comments

Managerial Accountability Is Not Missing; It’s just MISPLACED

By Michelle Malay Carter on October 29, 2008 

Last week I pointed you to an article by Samuel A. Culbert, Get Rid of the Performance Review.  I thought it was well written, but I’m not in 100% agreement with some of his proposed solutions, particularly around accountability.
Culbert says, “The alternative to one-side-accountable, boss-administered/subordinate-received performance reviews is two-side, reciprocally accountable, performance previews.”
Performance Previews
I often talk [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management | 11 Comments

Leadership Gut Check - Performance Reviews

By Michelle Malay Carter on October 23, 2008 

Eschew the Performance Review
I wrote earlier this week about best intentions not leading to best practices.  Even if we were to grant that performance reviews started with the best of intentions - they have wandered dangerously off course.
Deming argued against them back in his day.  I’ve argued against them myself.  But this Machine is a [...]

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Best Intentions Don’t Equal Best Practices - Ask the Bigger Questions of Your Systems

By Michelle Malay Carter on October 20, 2008 

I believe in people.  Their inherent goodness.  Their desire to contribute.  To do well by themselves and others.  But clearly, this does not always translate into best practices.  Sometimes to do right by ourselves, our systems force us to do wrong by others.
Whoa!  Where Did We Go?
Many times we start out doing something for a good [...]

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Where is the Leadership Wisdom? Hiding with Waldo

By Michelle Malay Carter on October 15, 2008 

Have you played the game, Where’s Waldo?  The point is to search an incredibly cluttered image and isolate Waldo, who is hiding amongst the debris. Can you find Waldo in the image to the left?
We Don’t Need More.  We Need Discernment
When it comes to leadership wisdom, it’s a little like Where’s Waldo.  There is more than [...]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Executive Leadership, Requisite Organization | 2 Comments

Talent Management - What HR Should Have Done

By Michelle Malay Carter on September 23, 2008 

In last week’s post, Performance Evaluations, Rating Scales and Fraud, I discussed a manager who had a performance review returned to him from HR. He was told by HR to lower the ratings he gave his stellar employee because, “You can’t rate every line item a 5 out of 5″. 
In other words, he was expected [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management, Work Levels | Leave a Comment

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