On weekdays when I am at home, and not travelling, I get up early, get connected to the rest of the organisation through mails and calls, do an hour of yoga, and then drive to the office, arriving there around 10:00 a.m. I usually work until 8:00 p.m. and then head home to my family. During the day...
Here’s a thought to chew on while you’re considering your new year’s resolution: if it’s not laughably impossible, hopelessly impractical, preposterously insurmountable—stop. Start over. You’re not doing it right. Let me explain, with a little parable. In 2007, Blackberry-maker RIM was king of the...
In a WSJ post I promised that I’d lay out a blueprint for building a company that’s as nimble as change itself—and I will, but first I’d like to share an anecdote about a simple experiment in workplace freedom. In most organizations, the decision-making freedoms of frontline employees are highly...
Most of the industrial pioneers who created “modern” management—individuals like Frederick Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan, and Donaldson Brown—were born in the 19th century. These bold thinkers would no doubt be surprised to learn that their inventions, which included workflow...
Over the last decade, the Internet has had a profound impact on business. It has spawned a slew of new business models and has helped make operating models vastly more efficient. By contrast, the Web’s impact on management models has been relatively modest.
What would it look like if the rapidly-evolving social world of Web 2.0 collided with the sterile and static corporate Intranet? What would happen if information flowed from the outside in, instead of inside out? Those are the questions at the heart of an interesting experiment unfolding at global...
At one time or another, most of us have probably worked for a boss who was self-absorbed, vindictive, or just plain inept — a real-life equivalent to Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott. One of my first jobs was for an HR manager who thought the best way to humble a cocky new MBA was to have him spend...
It seems that every day on the Web we discover a new solution to a problem. Whether it’s a new online resource that helps us manage our finances or an online community that has organized to share information and address an issue, the Web is incredibly effective and offers endless inspiration. And...
As I mentioned in my previous post , over the past few months, more than 600 members of the MIX community from around the world have participated in the Management 2.0 Hackathon . The hackathon is a hands-on, collaborative effort focused on generating fresh and practical answers to one of today's...
The need to empower natural leaders isn’t an HR pipedream, it’s a competitive imperative. But before you can empower them, you have to find them. In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record—it’s easy to discover who’s in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don’t...