3588 Posts Found

One challenge in working with powerful and capable actors is that they’re typically confident that they already know what’s going on and what they need to do. This makes it hard for them to see things from a different perspective. One way to help them is to give them opportunities to listen to and talk with people who have different experiences and whom they consider … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Kahane | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

All these [people] problems have to do with people separating from one another: in silos, by disengaging, by thinking they understand when they don’t. When leaders believe everybody is clear about the direction of their enterprise, but employees perform in a way that doesn’t fit that direction, leaders and employees are separated. When people blame one another for mistakes, they create separation. These separations, or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: William E. Schneider | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Culture means how we hire, structure, deploy, compensate, and develop our employees to deliver on our customer promise. It establishes and underpins a company’s: structure, membership criteria, conditions for judging effective performance, communication patterns, expectations and priorities, the nature of reward and compensation, the nature and use of power, decision-making practices, and teaming practices (among others). It is about our community of employees. It is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: William E. Schneider | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Culture, Organizational Behavior

Profit and non-profit enterprises are living people systems. Embracing this belief (and its implications) will significantly change your leadership for the better. Customers, employees, and leaders are not commodities and they are not separate from one another. They are different, but they are not separate. If you take away any one of the three—customers, employees, or leaders—you don’t have an enterprise! […] The promise that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: William E. Schneider | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

At First Round’s recent CEO Summit, Jeff Lawson brought granularity to company values and culture by sharing both victorious and vulnerable examples from his time at Twilio. Specifically, he deconstructed his efforts into three parts: articulating, living and changing company values. Any startup that has been told to be its authentic self, but has encountered more handwaving than a tactical plan will find solace and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeff Lawson | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Most folks would agree that learning is good. The catch is that modern life hones skills — like pattern recognition and selective attention — that are at odds with learning. With hectic personal and professional schedules, we live much of life sensing and responding, only engaging in creative or critical thinking occasionally.

Content: Quotation | Author: Anne Dwane | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

The dynamics of any large organization — indeed, any complex human endeavor — are rife with unacknowledged interpersonal tensions, seemingly arbitrary restrictions, and murky priorities. As a young manager, you may find it hard to be heard or be taken seriously. Later, you may be given opportunities to solve problems, but without the authority (over staff and budget, for example) that the task would demand. Eventually, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Art Kleiner, Jeffrey Schwartz, Josie Thomson | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

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If trust is the basis for success, then managers need to know how to build—and keep—the trust of their employees. Here are 10 steps to get started.

Content: Article | Author: Laura Forer | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Multiple studies have indicated the degree to which business leaders are loath to kill projects. One such study developed by IESE Business School Professor Luis Huete found that companies and individuals that have had a track record of success have a harder time killing projects, because they carry with them an ingrained belief that they can turn everything into gold, so long as everyone works … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, J. André de Barros Teixeira, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Many workplaces are characterized by competing agendas and conflict (no alignment on direction), by politics and bureaucracy (low quality of execution), and by the corrosive idea that work is “just a job” (a low sense of renewal). These aren’t just unhealthy for companies that want to deliver sustainable bottom-line results—they are unhealthy for the human soul. […] Healthy organizations, by contrast, unleash our potential and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Scott Keller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Performance is what an enterprise does to deliver improved financial and operational results for its stakeholders. Companies evaluate their performance through financial and operational metrics such as net operating profit, returns on capital employed, total shareholder returns, net operating costs, and stock turn (and the relevant equivalents in not-for-profit and service industries). By contrast, health describes how effectively people work together to pursue a common … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Scott Keller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Organizations are vibrant, living social systems. At the core of these systems are local tribes. These tribes develop their own mythology, ways of working, and norms; […] In aggregate, organizations are poor at localizing things (whether strategies or new technology platforms), because they generally lack the language and lens for affecting tribalism.

Content: Quotation | Author: Todd Warner | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Organizational Behavior

One asset that a lot of large organizations have is the history they have in the category. As much as that can sometimes lead to conventional wisdom and stale thinking setting in, it also can be this enormous treasure trove of actually having tracked what worked. What didn’t work? Why didn’t it work? If those organizations could get more disciplined around postmortems and tracking that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Brian Quinn | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

This simple tool can help your team assess your organization’s current performance level across 6 areas (16 items to assess) and consider how important each is to develop a big-picture awareness of any gaps you need to work on.

Content: Online Resource | Source: The CLEMMER Group | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Put an end to the costly workplace isolation experienced by many women by clustering them on teams and improving the promotion process.

Content: Article | Authors: Kevin Sneader, Lareina Yee | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Women in Business

It’s not surprising that many of the behaviors that hold men and women back would be different. After all, women often have very different experiences at work. And experience shapes habits and responses. Familiar habits and responses may feel intrinsic, like part of who you are. But they are not you; they are you on autopilot. Bringing them to conscious awareness is the first step … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Marshall Goldsmith, Sally Helgesen | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Women in Business

We like to say that organizational health is composed of three things. One is how well the organization aligns around a common strategy. Two, how the strategy then translates down into the work environment—how well the organization executes against its strategy and its ambition. Three is how well it renews itself over time, which basically means two things: one, looking outside, staying in tune with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Brooke Weddle | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

When company leaders can’t hear the voices of their workers, serious strategic mistakes are likely. Here are ways organizations can build powerful communication channels.

Content: Article | Authors: Dina Gerdeman, Michael Beer | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Communication, Management, Organizational Behavior

What does it take to truly change the world? In The Wise Company, Hirotaka Takeuchi shares the practices that help leading companies turn knowledge into lasting breakthroughs.

Content: Article | Authors: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Kristen Senz | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior