Here’s a bit of non-genius – getting people to work together across departments requires setting up how they are supposed to work together across departments. And the reverse – if people don’t work well together across departments, there is a fair chance that we haven’t set up how they are supposed to work together across departments.
Imagine this conversation: Read more…
A younger friend of mine has recently made the elite professional level of his sport; there is no higher level besides international representation in his game. Very impressive as he had the courage to leave his hometown and try to reach something in which there was a genuine chance of failure (when was the last time you did something with that condition?).
I asked how is he finding things at the top level, and his answer was about feedback. He said that any mistake gets punished on the field by the other team, so there is heaps of pressure, and along with it heaps of feedback Read more…
If you’re a manager, there are some things that you need to do in order to lead your people. Not someone else. I’ll state the corollary – there are certain things that you cannot assign or delegate if you want an effective team. And these things apply regardless of the level in the organisation; from CEO through to the people managing the shop floor or the sales team, if you’re accountable for the work of others, these things are yours. Read more…
There’s a classic old video on youtube called Explorations in Management, and I’m not going to put the link up – the production is just too hard-core 70s and the language so gender exclusive I can’t associate myself with it. It’s like a serious, boring Goodies episode. But I’m mentioning it by way of acknowledgement because it makes a simple and fundamental point about what causes people’s behaviour at work. (If you can’t resist finding it, type ‘Lord Wilfred Brown’ into youtube).
So, without further ado, quoting Lord Wilfred Brown:
“the behaviour of an individual at work is Read more…