Organisations – Shaun Coffey

July 25, 2021

Chronic Problems in Organisations

No shared vision and values

No strategic path

Poor alignment: bad alignment between structure and shared values, between mission and systems; the structure and systems of the organisation poorly serve and reinforce the strategic paths.

Wrong style: the management philosophy is either incongruent with shared vision and values or the style inconsistently embodies the vision and values of the mission statement.

Poor skills

Low trust: staff has low trust, a depleted emotional bank account, and that low trust results in closed communication, little problem – solving or poor cooperation and teamwork.

No self-integrity: values do not equal habits; there is no correlation between what I value and believe and what I do.

Source: SR COVEY (1990) Principle – Centred Leadership, London: Simon and Schuster. Pp.165-171

July 8, 2020

Chronic problems in organisations – community, business, government

When it comes to organisation of all types, there are some problems that seem to persist and persist and persist….

When I first started seriously studying management and leadership in the 1980s, people like Stephen Covey were in vogue. In 1990, he identified chronic problems in organisations. I don’t see much different today.

Take a look at this list, and ask yourself how well your organisation is doing and what you might do in your organisation differently.

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

Places of Realised Potential

People with a commitment to potential see potential not merely as self-fulfillment but as expressing stewardship and servanthood. Is where you work a place where potential can be realised?

A place of realised potential:

Opens itself to change, to contrary opinion, to the mystery of potential, to involvement, to unsettling ideas.
Offers people the opportunity to learn and grow.
Offers the gift of challenging work.
Sheds its obsolete baggage.
Encourages people to decide what needs to be measured and then helps them to do the work.
Heals people with trust and with caring and with forgiveness.
Is a social environment – people in places of realised potential know that organisations are social environments.
Celebrates.

Source : Max De Pree (1997) Leading without power. Finding hope in serving community. Jossey-Bass ISBN-13: 978-0787910631

June 7, 2020

Do we take our organisations too seriously? A Company as a Carnival – vintage Tom Peters

Today I was wandering through an old note book reflecting on business post-Covid. I “found”this 1992. I have always found it delightful and fun to try and think in metaphorn and this from Tom Peter – well it’s vintage Peters – fun and vibrant! And was probably before it’s time!! Or perhaps still ahead. Enjoy

Add up fickle and fashion, the need for bonkers “organisations,” lots of tries and the matchless power of markets, and what do you have? Among other things, a clarion call for a new imagery.

In short, today’s organisational images stink. Not just those that derive from the military (“Kick ass and take names”) and “pyramids” (heavy, steep, immobile), but even the new “network,” “spiderweb,” “Calder mobile.” These modern notions are a mighty step forward, but they still miss the core idea of tomorrow’s surviving corporation: dynamism.