Each week I share three ideas to help you build better organizations. Here’s one idea from me, one quote from someone else, and one question for you to ponder as you head off into the weekend: 1. Leading in Uncertainty A few weeks ago I wrote about something called paradoxical leadership. Yet another example…

Leaders — true leaders — don’t command or control. They motivate. — In the book Time’s Up, authors Dunn and Baker recount the following exercise: 1. Command [Imagine that three] groups of 10 individuals are in a park at lunchtime with a rainstorm threatening. In the first group, someone says: “Get up and follow me.” When he starts walking and only a few others…

Three reasons why a Teal-like company has chosen to adopt the Rendanheyi organizational model. — I’ll be speaking at Teal Around the World on March 3, 2023. I’ll be talking about MAQE and our decision to adopt Rendanheyi (RDHY). MAQE is a Teal-like company. Why did we decide to adopt an organizational model from the world’s largest white goods manufacturer? That’s a fair question, and…

What determines an organization's approach to management? — Remember the management continuum from last week’s article? It looked like this:

Which style best describes managers in your organization? — Management takes many forms. Which of the following options best describes managers at your company? 1. Instruct and Command Managers are bosses whose job it is to tell others what to do and how to do it. They are hands-on and detail-oriented, with intimate knowledge of the work to be done. Their position gives…

How and why frequent follow-ups are key to changing the perceptions of others. — Imagine that you have a habit of making destructive comments about the people you work with. Imagine that you are aware of the problem and that you are committed to changing your behavior. Next, imagine the following scenarios: 1. Scenario 1: Better Habits You buy yourself a copy of James Clear’s Atomic Habits. You read…

How and why two seemingly opposing design patterns can co-exist. — It’s time to tie up some loose ends. Tweets included for support and context: 1. Paradoxical Leadership A few months back I wrote about something called Paradoxical Leadership. Helen Bevan summed it up nicely on Twitter: Dealing with paradox is an essential leadership skill in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world…

How and why you should not misinterpret the findings of Google’s Project Oxygen. — I introduced Google’s Project Oxygen in last week’s newsletter. In this here Part 2, I’d like to dispel three possible misinterpretations of its findings before offering some thoughts of my own: 1. Managers should never command or control It’s possible to misinterpret the findings of Project Oxygen to mean that managers should never command or control. But…

How and why Google identified the makings of great managers — Google’s Project Aristotle, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, was a research project on team effectiveness. It was preceded by a similar project (code-named Oxygen) that looked at manager effectiveness. It’s Project Oxygen I would like to focus on today. …