In our modern world, organizations are routinely bending nature to their will for our benefit. Yet, this control doesn’t transfer to the routines of organizational life. We plan project portfolios using metrics we know aren’t effective, conduct annual performance appraisals that achieve little, and spend months to fill vacancies even though candidates are readily available. We can […]
Bending the Organization to Our Will in 2016 Read More »
My friends in the nuclear power program always liked to pick on me because of my intellectual love affair with the nuclear navy’s founder, Admiral H. G. Rickover. Though I would fain hurt feelings during their sessions of teasing, I really didn’t mind. I have many people who I intellectually adore, Rickover chief among them
On my adoration for Admiral Rickover Read More »
There is…an enormous reservoir of relatively untapped genius–that is, the capacity for exceptional accomplishment–which existing systems of motivation have failed to reach.” – Saul Gellerman, Management by Motivation (1968, page 204) In June 2015 in London at what is lovingly called Gilbfest, I had the privilege to give a presentation based on my work with
Reservoir of Untapped Genius Read More »
For the first time in six years, Engine For Change has a new look. I’m doing some site maintenance in advance of what I’m hoping will be a busy 2016 of posting. Thank you to all of you who’ve been with me since this blog began. Welcome to all new readers. I’ll work hard to
A new look under construction Read More »
In Ecclesiastes. Solomon said, And there is nothing new under the sun.” I’m reminded of that often, when I find something novel and then find it restated somewhere else, slightly differently, later. Yet, in the midst of “nothing new,” there can be different and better. Different in the sense of new ways of combining old
And there is nothing new under the sun Read More »
If diverse candidates are water and your organization is piping and you find yourself with leaks (e.g., retention problems), what should you do? If you found a leak like this in your home’s plumbing, what would you do? You would try to fix the piping. You wouldn’t try to thicken the water. So, why are
Stop Trying to Fix the Water – Fix the Piping Instead Read More »
For Lukasz, Niels, Clifford, and Ray, and more, I offer this quote from “The Rickover Effect,” Traditionally, the professional man follows certain tacit or explicit rules of conduct which vary in detail vary in detail as between different professions. Basic to all of them, however, are two rules: first, the obligation to reject lay direction
Are you a professional? Read More »
It’s been an honor to participate in the Agile by Example conference in Warsaw, Poland. Thanks to Piotr Burdylo and Lukasz Szostek and more for putting on a fantastic conference. On Monday I had the great privilege to attend a dojo session offered by Niels Malotaux. Results Management and Evo Planning are topics that all
Agile by Example 2015 #abe15 Read More »
This week has been a long line of reminders of a lesson you think I would have learned by now: You really only learn something by doing something. Thinking, “I should do….” is not enough. You actually have to try to do…experience it…get lost in it…make it through. Then, you’ve learned something. I don’t know
70 % of all transformation initiatives are significantly challenged or fail altogether. One of the main reasons is that an Agile tranformation consists of two parts: process transformation and people transformation and many organizations overlook the second part.”— John Kotter, author of Leading Change This quote appeared in an email I received earlier this week
Circumnavigation for Transformation Read More »
