December’s newsletter: Today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, that time in the year when the nights are longest and the days are coldest. In the forest around where I live, the holly trees are at the height of their powers, with leaves that are dark-green and shiny, whilst the oaks and other Read more about Winter solstice – the still point of the turning world[…]
Here’s a fascinating article about Handelsbanken, the Swedish bank that has over 200 branches in the UK and is the fastest growing bank in the UK. The article explains how the bank has a very different approach from the typical large banks, which are very focused on finding the benefits of large-scale. Handelsbanken is much Read more about The bank that cares about more than money[…]
Sometimes, I forget I am an animal. Carried away with my ability to think, to calculate and analyse, to plan and strategise, I forget that I have a body with its own urges and needs, its own intelligence and ways of experiencing the world. I forget to honour my body’s need to move, to breathe Read more about Humans – simply imperfect machines?[…]
It is a rare thing to hear a Conservative prime minister call for more responsible capitalism. Theresa May’s remarks at the recent party conference of the UK’s Conservativeare party are a sign that large corporations are breaking the unwritten contract they have with society. Corporate scandals that regularly hit the headlines (most recently Sports Direct and BHS, Read more about Farewell to feudalism? Time to change company law![…]
For years I have been working in the field of organisational structures, driven by a fascination with how business is organised, what our social structures do to people and what implications that has for society and the planet. In this post I give an overview of developments in this field and how the Human Organising Read more about Human Organising?[…]
There’s an interesting recent article in the New York Times here about Google’s search for the perfect team. After a lot of research, they ended up focusing on “psychological safety” – the notion that in the most effective teams, people can say what they think or feel without fear or criticism or attack. “We must Read more about Psychological safety makes for a good team[…]
Here’s a nice TED talk by former captain of a US nuclear submarine. http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxScottAFB-David-Marquet-How Some quotes: when he was first given command, he had “a crew trained for compliance and a captain trained for a different submarine.” So “we stopped giving orders…I had no list of what anyone on that submarine had to do, other Read more about How great leaders serve others[…]
For several years I have been very interested in a group practice that I feel has great potential for application in business. It is a method of decision-making that is sometimes described as dialogue. It is as old as the hills and variants thereof can be found in the Quaker business method, Native American Indian Read more about On dialogue[…]
Over the last decade I have built up a wide variety of resources relating to the organisation and governance of business. In the coming months I will be sharing the best of these on this site. In this post, I share the notes from a conversation I had in 2012 with Stephen May. He was Read more about How John Lewis governs itself[…]
Our organisations are failing us. Just consider some of the news stories in the last year or two. The world’s largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen has been, in the words of its CEO, “dishonest”. VW pursues profit and the Earth’s atmosphere bears the cost. Other car companies are now being investigated. The banks, meanwhile, have been Read more about Our organisations are failing us. But there is hope…[…]