John Abrams, President of South Mountain Company, tells the story of how the company became employee-owned: In 1987 I sold my business, South Mountain Company, to my employees (and myself)… Shared ownership and control is our method at South Mountain. “Every employee, an owner” is our intention. More than half of our thirty employees are … Continue reading Sharing the reins
It’s nice to see that Fast Company agrees with me on the values and pitfalls of metrics :o) Here’s a current Fast Company article on the “what gets measured gets done” thinking. And here’s one I wrote a while back, and a more recent one. Fast Company: In fact, the jobs that are most effectively … Continue reading Metrics
Can you know something, that you haven’t measured? Of course you can. I would actually argue, that by far the largest percentage of what you know about the current state of your organization was not something you measured – it was knowledge that came to you via some other process than objective metrics. A few … Continue reading The problem with metrics
This book is Harrison Owens second book about Open Space, and it contains stories of how he arrived at the concept of Open Space, and of how it has helped and transformed various organizations. Also, the book touches on time, or rather on our perception of it. All we really have is now. The past … Continue reading Book review: Expanding our now
I’m currently reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The book is about that state of consciousness where everything just flows. Where the gears mesh smoothly, there are no distractions, you loose track of time, and it feels really good. You can achieve flow at work or in your free time. Concert violinists and mountain climbers can … Continue reading Values as clear goals?
I’ve heard it often: What get’s measured get’s done. It’s especially popular among proponents of Balanced Scorecards and similar management tools. I think it’s wrong. Click more and I’ll tell you why I think so. Well first of all, what does the statement mean? Most often it’s used as a reason to measure performance in … Continue reading What get’s measured get’s done: True or False?
Complexity science is appearing more and more often in business literature (and just about everywhere else). This book with the subtitle “unleashing the power of complexity science for business success” shows a better way to manage organizations than the old command-and-control way, and describes some of the tools needed to get there. It helped put … Continue reading Book review: The soul at work
The fifth discipline by Peter M. Senge is one of those books that truly make a difference. It is referred to in many different contexts, and it played an important role in shaping the concepts of the learning organization.