It's time to reinvent management. You can help.

Humanize the language of business

“The noblest human ideals must become the noblest business ideals.”

The goals of management are usually described using words like “efficiency,” “advantage,” “value,” “superiority,” “focus,” and “differentiation.” Important as these objectives are, they lack the power to rouse human hearts. To create organizations that are almost human in their capacity to adapt, innovate, and engage, management pioneers must find ways to infuse even the most mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals and to develop an authentically homegrown vocabulary for communicating their ambitions. How you talk reflects how you think (and how your organization works). If you want to inspire people to extraordinary accomplishment, the language of honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty can no longer be relegated to the fringes of management discourse and action.

32 Stories
87 Hacks
4 Barriers

Humanize the language of business

“The noblest human ideals must become the noblest business ideals.”

The goals of management are usually described using words like “efficiency,” “advantage,” “value,” “superiority,” “focus,” and “differentiation.” Important as these objectives are, they lack the power to rouse human hearts. To create organizations that are almost human in their capacity to adapt, innovate, and engage, management pioneers must find ways to infuse even the most mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals and to develop an authentically homegrown vocabulary for communicating their ambitions. How you talk reflects how you think (and how your organization works). If you want to inspire people to extraordinary accomplishment, the language of honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty can no longer be relegated to the fringes of management discourse and action.

Filter By:
Trying to change company culture to one where talent development occurs informally and daily, Accenture developed the 30 Day Challenge: a social experiment using blogging, where 8650 people volunteere
Story by Clare Norman on July 4, 2011
I have never tried to define a bureaucrat, even thought I have encountered many over my career. Now, I think I have a definition of how it feels when you meet one.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on August 26, 2015
Migros is the largest retailer in Switzerland. The company has been always intimately involved in the country's social, communal and economic affairs.
Some of you may know the renowned photographer, Yann Arthus Bertrand. He is particularly famous for his series of shots of "the earth viewed from the sky".
Story by Olivier Lavergne on November 30, 2010
One of the most incredible initiatives in terms of organizational transformation I've ever seen is the one carried out by groups all over the world like Pallapuas (hospital clowns).
Story by Francisco Boerr on May 6, 2010
It goes without saying that an efficient workplace leads to a more successful business.
Story by Cassidy Hennigan on December 18, 2017
Just 15 years ago the idea that business should place a social objective ahead of its responsibility to investors was considered economic heresy.In just the last year that perception has been changed
Story by Jeff Mowatt on July 25, 2012
Did you ever watch the movie "Paths of glory" from Stanley Kubrick with Kirk Douglas?
Story by Olivier Lavergne on November 30, 2010
Bart was my first Chef at the Admiral Benbow hotel in Birmingham. He set up the kitchen and planned our daily luncheon buffet. The buffet was a great success.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on January 24, 2017
I graduated from college in February of 1971, Mr. JKE had his motel manager Durrell Dallas ask me if I want to become a management trainee. The restaurant manager had just quit or been fired.
Story by Jim McGriff, Jr. on February 27, 2020

Pages