Ever wondered why managers struggle to overcome resistance to change? Why institutions consistently talk about improvement but cannot increase operational efficiency? And why do some sectors perform so badly when compared with others? Tensions Management is a better way to overcome resistance to change, as it addresses social and technical factors simultaneously. Dr Russ Lewis […]
Flawed Advice and the Management Trap, Chris Argyris, 2000 Social tensions in organizations prevent people from doing what they privately believe to be right. People espouse one model but employ another; they do not walk the talk. The gap between words and actions is compounded (by repetition) to become the infamous strategy – execution gap […]
'Managing Tensions not People' as transformation method research update at the end of 2023 This time last year I was searching through the ambidexterity literature for tensions other than the usual explore-exploit. I built a website to publish my progress online, which I think was a diversion! Literature research update I found more than 70 […]
Today’s challenge is that traditional management approaches, where managers tell people what to do and how to do it, are not as effective as they once were. Agile transformation takes years, but changing management’s focus from people to tensions could be a better solution. It is simpler, faster, and considerably more cost-effective. Management is the […]
One of my favourite books on organisational change is ‘Who Moved my Cheese?’ It’s short, and mice looking for cheese to eat is an appealing analogy. It’s a model for managers because it covers four theoretical outcomes of change. Those outcomes are: what happens if I (or we) do, or don’t make this change, what […]
In the standup, we had a (brief) team discussion about tracking progress. I reacted against Jira because a) I dislike the user interface as it's a collaboration killer, and b) we aren't a software development or IT support team. Standup game visualises progress Three weeks later, team members Sam Thomas and @HughHadfield demonstrated this way […]
Introduction The future of leadership is Agile There are many different types of leadership styles and not all work well in every situation. The most popular method, the "Command and Control" style which has been dominant for centuries, may be on its way out as research shows that this type of leadership does not foster […]
There is a workplace evolution underway, lots of people are signalling it. Dan Pink came-up with the label ‘Motivation 3.0’ in Drive; Jurgen Appelo followed suit with ‘Management 3.0’; and many of us speak of a move towards a Lean or Agile enterprise. Earlier this year, Frederic Laloux published Reinventing Organisations in which he not […]
Business Agility Leadership Coaching (BALC) emerged as a consequence of asking leaders and managers across HSBC how they wanted to improve their agile leadership. Our proposed solution hit a sweet spot because we were 100% oversubscribed at the start and interest just kept growing during the three months of the structured learning events. The 'secret […]
