Management is Broken beyond Repair
The current management paradigm is broken beyond repair. As the 21st Century progresses it becomes increasingly clear that the top-down hierarchy of control based on power, known for centuries, doesn’t …
The Road Back – from Chaos
In 1929 the German author, Erich Maria Remarque, wrote the novel “Der Weg Zurück” or “The Road Back”, about German soldiers trying to return to civilization after the nightmare and …
Death of a Salesman?
Without sales no company can survive, so why is the Sales Professional so precarious an occupation? By rethinking sales management, is it possible to improve performance and create truly sustainable …
Corona and Chaos
Sudden drops into Chaos It has been a month since the Prime Minister of Denmark (Mette Frederiksen) ordered the country to lock down. I was at a blues concert when …
Strange rings in the water after the Coronavirus
This week our media has made some observations, reflections and revelations of unusual situations and reactions which are worth noting and which I cannot avoid seeing from the perspective of …
General Stanley McChrystal: Team of Teams
General Stanley McChrystal (SMC), who from 2003 led the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq, wrote a book called “Team of Teams” in 2015 about his learnings in Iraq …
Situational Awareness and Maneuverability in Teams
In Denmark we have a phenomenon that we call “Black Sun”. It happens in the fall when thousands of starlings gather in the marshlands of Jutland and prepare for their …
Working the Agile way in Non-profit Organizations
Normally we think of agility as man’s best friend jumping through hoops and performing other tricks, however Agile is also a modern way of organising work and achieving better results. …
(Dansk) Prince2 og Scrum
Sorry, this entry is only available in Danish.
The Leadership Cornerstones
Cornerstone of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau (1602). The original uploader was Iidxplus at Chinese Wikipedia. 2018 was a year with many challenges, debates and excursions around the …
Confessions of a Scrum Trainer
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned! It’s been a while since my last confession.” This sentence is the prologue to many a surprising new development in movies and novels. …
The Attraction of Classic Hierarchies
During the heat-wave over Europe this past summer, I realized that the little grey cells of our brains seem to suffocate and become slow and lazy in such conditions. It …
How command and control works
One of my favorite cartoonists is Mort Walker, who passed away earlier this year after almost 80 years of producing comic strips. His main contribution is the cartoon Beetle Bailey, …
Agile in 60 Seconds
The term Agile is used in many ways, but at the very least it covers different sets of values, patterns, principles and methods to cope with working in environments of …
Guns and Roses
No, this is not about the American hard rock band with the numerous internal fights and frictions, normally spelled “Guns N’ Roses”. It is instead about the quite surprising fact, …
Complexity once again: Liminal Cynefin
Often we find that it is the borderline areas of concepts that really define their true nature. So it is with complexity. Dave Snowden has once again, true to his …
Complexity – the human condition
Throughout most of the history of human civilization and society, mankind has had the understanding that we only have limited insight into cause and effect in the world. People have …
Reclaim and proclaim
In the previous articles (#1, #2 and #3) I wrote about how the west was lost to the neo-Taylorist managerial totalitarianism. The latest article ended on a slightly lighter note …
Leadership on the other side of the fence
Through the last articles I investigated some of the studies and narratives about management and leadership, and how the West was lost to that particular style of management that can be …
How the West was lost #3, reclaiming
Is it really possible to reclaim the territory in our organizations that have been lost to neo-Taylorists? I am convinced that we can, and we will end this article with …
How the West was lost #2
The first article on this subject was a bit short and I would like to give some more background and detail. Before 1900 there was not much theory or anything about …
How the West was lost
The institutions in Western society are in a deep leadership crisis. The way governments, organizations and businesses manage their affairs obviously does not work in a sustainable way. An erosion …
The Challenge
Leadership in the 21st century is challenged. Have you ever had the experience of having to navigate the rapids of a complex project or initiative? How do you make sense …