How emotional are your business goals?
Some arguments against corporate blogging
Luc de Ruijter
Corporate blogs are like the corporate polls and forums from the haydays of the internet revolution. These were short lived hypes, well marketed by IT-vendors. What binds all these gimmicks is their lack of practical purpose other than the seemingly never ending quest for interaction amongst communication advisors.
Geplaatst op 03-13-2007

Do MBA's make lousy managers?
David Creelman
Got your MBA at Insead, Harvard or Erasmus University? That’s too bad. There are a lot of critics of MBA’s, but perhaps the most insightful is Dr. Henry Mintzberg. His latest book, "Managers Not MBA's: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development", makes a compelling case that businesses would be better off not hiring MBA's into management positions. Mintzberg's book has attracted a fury of criticism. This review by our Canadian correspondent, David Creelman, clarifies why MBA programs can be so damaging.
Geplaatst op 04-20-2004

The art of blogging
Interview with David Maister: “Blogging helps me make progress”
Coert Visser
Blogging is exploding! Is it the next hype? Well known management author David Maister started his blog early in 2006. What are his ‘lessons learned’, what are his favorite blogs in the service industry, what blogs will survive? How to get interaction and response? A quote: “blogging, like everything else, is about relationships, not quick hits”.
Geplaatst op 05-24-2006

Young Professionals: Cultivate the Habits of Friendship
You don’t have to be a natural to get better at this
David Maister
Most young professionals realize that skill in generating business will be an important determinant of their success. However, many believe that, in the early stages of their career, they do not have much opportunity to develop these skills. This could not be further from the truth.
Geplaatst op 01-06-2006

Organizational behavior in historical perspective
Part 1: The taming of emotions
Willem Mastenbroek
The current high degree of self-discipline and control looks quite natural and selfunderstood. It definitely is not. Morerover our ways of emotion management show a close relation with patterns of power and dependency. This is another neglected area. How helpful is modern skill-training in its disregard of emotional drives and power differences?
Geplaatst op 08-17-2005

Interview with David Maister
Coert Visser
'Messy emotions ' are often important drivers in organizations. Read what managment guru David Maister has to say about this. And what about all those management fads? What is really useful? What insights will stand the test of time? These are only some of the intruiging issues David Maister talks about in this interview.
Geplaatst op 03-18-2003

Moving FORWARD with solution-focused change
A results-oriented and appreciative way of making progress
Coert Visser en Gwenda Schlundt Bodien
The solution-focused approach has helped coaches, trainers, consultants and managers to be more effective in realizing their goals. Moreover, it has often made their work more enjoyable. This article presents a simple, new, and - hopefully - sticky model to describe the solution-focused approach: the FORWARD-model.
Geplaatst op 02-27-2007

The only competitive advantage in professional services
Interview with David Maister - part 2
Coert Visser
How important is ‘marketing’ for a professional? What factors determine career success? How to improve the management of change? What is the first and only competitive advantage in professional services? These are a few of the questions David and Coert are discussing. Quote: “People think that marketing is about getting more business. It’s not. Marketing is about getting better business.”
Geplaatst op 06-13-2006

Organizational Resilience in Times of Crisis
Does the people centered philosophy still work during crisis?
Coert Visser
Is laying-off people during crisis a good strategy? Some organizational research is stating this does not work and may backfire even. The situation in the American airline industry after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 was an almost unparalleled crisis. An excellent chance to take the test. Which companies proved to be most resilient and why?
Geplaatst op 01-31-2006

See-Feel-Change
Review of the Heart of Change by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen, Harvard Business School Press Book, Boston
Jim Mortensen
There is so much talk about how often change efforts in organizations fail that it could make you wonder if successful organizational change exists at all. Well, it does. And by analyzing it we can learn about how to accomplish it. And this is exactly what John Kotter and Dan Cohen have set out to do in their book the Heart of Change. Jim Mortensen from Brigham Young University has written a very interesting review of this book. This book is not yet another analysis of how change so often goes wrong but attempts to answer the precise opposite question: when does organizational change go right and what happens when it does? Mortensen briefly summarizes the book and shares some thought-provoking reflections on its content.
Geplaatst op 03-30-2005