A while ago, a friend asked my advice about dealing with an ‘apathetic and cynical’ member of her management team. The team were tasked with driving through some sweeping changes in her Primary Care Trust (I probably need to explain to non-UK readers that this is part of the UK’s National Health Service). My friend
I came across this quote by Albert Einstein mentioned in a couple of places in the same week, and it struck my how applicable it is to Appreciative Inquiry. If you’re looking only at analysing the causes of problems, you’re going to miss the factors that make for success. Unlike most of the Einstein quotes
Rising levels of stress and depression The business bestseller lists are full of books about how to embrace change. Silicon Valley companies are lauded for disrupting traditional business models. “A game-changer” is about the most complimentary thing you can say about an idea. But what if you’re an employee in a company that’s in a
A series of experiments at Harvard Business School by Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely, found that people value products more when they have put work into assembling them. In one experiment, participants each assembled an item of IKEA furniture and then were asked how much they would pay for it. Then a new
Understanding the difference between First- and Second-Order Change in organisations, and how to recognise when each is appropriate One reason that so many organisational change initiatives fail is that the leaders and consultants involved don’t recognise the difference between ‘first-order’ and ‘second-order’ change. First-order change works within an existing structure and view of the world.
