Until quite recently, the expression “As rare as hen’s teeth” meant pretty much never. But several years ago, scientists at two universities (Manchester and Wisconsin) learned how to make them grow. Chickens, it seems, didn’t need dentures after all. That is an especially appropriate metaphor with respect to great managers, because although they can be […]
If you have a science background, then you’re probably familiar with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Like nearly everything scientific, it’s defined in terms that only those who live in that world understand easily. For laymen, it perhaps can best be understood as the tendency for just about everything to change from order to chaos. […]
Nearly three out of four Americans say that they’re bored at work.* They feel that their knowledge, skills and abilities aren’t being used, and that their companies don’t care. To give you an idea of the size of the problem, imagine that instead of boredom, they were all too sick to even show up. The streets […]
Leadership is probably the most discussed and least understood topic in organizations. The word itself yields more than two billion returns on Google. That alone should give you some idea, not only of its popularity, but also the wide range of opinions that surround it. So at the risk of adding to the billions of […]
In 1959, Frederick Herzberg published his now famous two-factor theory of motivation. It articulated two categories of activities that occurred in organizations, and which defined what compelled people to be productive. To this day, it continues to surprise organizations, managers, and scholars. The factors were named hygienic and non-hygienic. Hygienic factors were those things that […]
The business of business has always been to provide products and services to customers. Throughout the ages, plans have been made, resources organized, people recruited (or conscripted), and everything coordinated together so that as near as possible the desired outcome was realized. Of all these elements, however, there is one on which the success or […]
Organizational narratives are the manifestation of the shared beliefs an organization holds about itself as a collective. “Our organization stands for innovation,” is a common example; “This will never work here, we are too conservative for that” yet another. Corporate narratives that deal with the collective view the organization holds about itself often form and […]
Deadlines, conference calls, last minute items that pop up, personal commitments—there is a multitude of things that we have to accomplish each day. It is easy to fall into the habit of just crossing things off of our to do list, without being fully present as we get them done. Of course we are physically […]
Jesse Jacoby
Erika Jacobi
