Project management and the matrix

This article is a summary sketch of the structural and cultural downsides of matriced relationships. It is an outgrowth of the author’s organization development (OD) consulting experiences. It draws on a great many group interviews and workshop observations. It encompasses the (remarkably consistent) views of both managerial and non-managerial personnel within those matrix organizations.

Learning Disabilities and Leadership

In organizations today we need to be able to learn together from collective experience. And, insofar as knowledge today is in constant flux, it is equally important for us to be able to (un-learn) prior beliefs that have become barriers to perceiving things fresh.

Editor’s Note: article offers an interesting (mostly common sense) list of organizational learning disabilities.

What Is Adaptive Leadership?

This article takes a look at the differences between organizations that are treated as mechanical systems and those treated as adaptive systems; also considers characteristics of adaptive leaders (term coined by the author).

Team-Building

An interesting look at teams, including a detailed list of needs of both team members and the team as an entity. Also offers a “FAMILY VALUES” acronym:
F – FOCUSED
A – ADAPTIVE
M – MISSION-ORIENTED
I – INVOLVED
L – LED
Y – YOUTHFUL

V – VALUE-ORIENTED
A – ASSESSED
L – LINKED
U – UNIFIED
E – EMPOWERED
S – SATISFIED … [ Read more ]

Learning, Un-Learning and Re-Learning …

Charles Albano offers an array of thoughts on learning. Little is offered in the way of prescribed actions to accompany the thoughts provided, though the questions offered in the ‘Spurs to Un-Learning’ section are a decent start.

Tapping the Potential To Contribute: A Survey Research Report

Dr. Charles Albano presents the results and findings of the survey conducted from January through May of 1998 which asked two questions:
(1) What percentage of your potential to contribute to your organization is presently being tapped? and
(2) What stands in the way of contributing more?

The Strategic Thinking Mindset

The ways of thinking that underlie strategy formulation are seldom addressed in business textbooks. But principles, or at least guides, can be reverse engineered by careful review of business case studies. The author has assembled some of these and presents them in a skeletal form in hopes they offer a useful checklist and
food for thought as to how leaders think.