Hire an Expert
Every week or so, someone will post the Simon Sinek quote, “You don’t hire for skills. You hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.” The problem with this quote is that it assumes other people in the company have the skills that they can teach this person. I have been part of companies that […]
Typology of Searches
A recent Twitter conversation inspired me with @edbatista to think more about searches and journeys. I started to come up with a typology of searches: In general, there are searches where you know what you are looking for in advance: I-spy, car keys, and the four-leaf clover. I will call these specific. And those where […]
You aren’t building an ecosystem
One of the hot fads right now is ecosystems. HBR went so far as to say, “Today’s CEOs Don’t Just Lead Companies. They Lead Ecosystems.” While the article is interesting in asking leaders to think about the interconnectedness of their business, it fails to understand a simple premise that you can’t lead an ecosystem. Some […]
Critical Systems Theory
I recently completed a course on Critical Systems Theory with Michael C Jackson—author of Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity. In this course, over 8 weeks, we covered multiple systems-based approaches for handling technical, process, structural, organizational, people, and power complexity. One thing of note is that many of these forms of complexity […]
Success and Successful
When you lie on your deathbed thinking about your life, will you consider yourself successful? What would your definition of being successful be? I would argue that it is hard to form that definition in advance. I have never been on my deathbed, so to speak, but I have had a time when my life […]