To identify with a business, an organization or a group, it’s important to have a sense of belonging, shared values and a common purpose. The new types of organization hope to achieve this objective by putting in place structures that encourage, among other things, more “equitable” power-sharing, more agile decision-making and greater accountability. As we’ve…
What are the values of your business or organization? Do you realize that, on average, fewer than 30% of employees are able to name the values of their companies? Even senior managers, and sometimes board members, can struggle to do so. And if I were to be even more controversial, I might ask the following…
Are you aware of the vision that inspires your business or organization? Have you grasped it and made it part of what you do? Have you reflected on how you contribute to it? Very often, a business’s vision statement is a text that is more or less clear, more or less meaningful, more or less…
Our society is constantly changing and we are seeing a rapid acceleration in the development of technologies. The latest expression of this relates to progress in the field of artificial intelligence, of which ChatGPT is the best known and most visible example. All of these changes tend to focus attention on the next key stage,…
Without tension there can be no development, no life. Take a top, for example: unless is kept turning on its axis, it cannot remain upright and balanced. A rubber band, if stretched, stores up energy which is released when the tension is relaxed. Of course, you mustn’t stretch it too far or the rubber band…
From time immemorial and particularly since the mid-20th century, enterprises, institutions (both public and private) and companies have been adopting new forms of organisation aimed at sharing power more effectively, becoming more agile and thus reducing the importance of – or even doing away with – hierarchies. Indeed, in recent years this trend has been accelerating. Wanting…
I’m convinced that some readers will probably already have had a reaction on seeing this “provocative” – or even disturbing – title. Don’t worry. We won’t be discussing gender-related issues or stereotyping. Let’s avoid the danger of misrepresenting and oversimplifying the question of human diversity. Of course, diversity is an asset. We have known this…
Life as we have known it till now has certainly changed: social distancing, working from home, lockdowns, restrictions on leisure activities and many other things have forced us out of our comfort zones. While this has stoked people’s fears and anxieties (please read my article on the notion of courage), it has also driven us…
Are we aware of the impact of our actions, our decisions, our questions, our attitude? I think not. All too often our actions are dictated by our emotions: we fail to step back and take time to understand ourselves and the reactions we trigger in others. We speak here of emotional intelligence. (See my article: Leadership…
Is your business capable of change?Our world is constantly on the move, so we and our employees must be able to adapt, anticipate and develop. Only thus can we rise to present and future challenges. But are we capable of doing so, and is our business ready for it?With inspiration from Isaac Newton, I’m going to…
