If you place in a bottle half a dozen bees and the same number of flies...

“If you place in a bottle half a dozen bees and the same number of flies, and lay the bottle horizontally, with its base [the closed end] to the window, you will find that the bees will persist, till they die of exhaustion or hunger, in their endeavor to discover an [opening] through the glass; while the flies, in less than two minutes, will all have sallied forth through the open neck on the opposite side…

It is [the bees] love of flight, it is their very intelligence, that is their undoing in this experiment. They evidently imagine that the issue from every prison must be where the light shines clearest; and they act in accordance, and persist in too-logical action.

To [bees] glass is a supernatural mystery… and, the greater their intelligence, the more inadmissible, more incomprehensible, will the strange obstacle appear. Whereas the feather-brained flies, careless of logic… flutter wildly hither and thither, and meeting the good fortune that often waits on the simple… necessarily end up by discovering the friendly opening that restores their liberty to them.” 

(Gordon Siu)

Thanks to Henry Mintzberg for referring me to this story

The 25-hour workweek and other radical ideas for better employee productivity and Does money really affect motivation?

Two friends of mine publish the J&E Alert, a fantastic newsletter highlighting thought provoking thinking on leadership, management and business. Below I share two snippets of their newsletter.

You can subscribe directly by sending an email to the editors (Mireille Jansma & Jurgen Egges)

Blog - The 25-hour workweek, and other radical ideas for better employee productivity (Rana Florida, Fastcompany, August 2013)

In this article, Rana Florida (CEO of Creative Class Group) shares her unconventional views on 'being the boss' and on how to let employees be 'their better selves'. From the article: "Please don't call me boss, don't send me approvals like I'm your boss, don't ask for approval to go on vacation", I said. "We are all colleagues. You are getting paid for your expertise. I am not going to do performance reviews or expect status reports. It's up to you to manage your own workload, to manage the clients, and to deliver a quality service."

Florida also points to Jason Fried of 37signals, who wrote a piece in the New York Times about productivity and variations in working time for employees. At 37signals they shorten the work week from May through October. Fried: "When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time."

Article - Does money really affect motivation? A review of the research (Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, HBR, 10 April 2013)

An old theme: the effects of financial incentives on intrinsic motivation. For whomever needs arguments to oppose - or defend? - bonuses and other target-related forms of payment.

Decision Making: It's not what you think by Henry Mintzberg (Part 3)

Introduction by Phil LeNir:

Following is the third and final excerpt of the themed discussion guide on Decision Making: It’s not what you think. In 2007, Henry Mintzberg and I started a company called CoachingOurselves to develop these discussion topics. We brought a reflective approach to developing leaders and managers to the enterprise learning space.

The building blocks of our approach are 90 minute sessions by small groups of managers. Each session is guided by one of our themed discussion topics. Managers work through the topic together; sharing their knowledge, learning from experiences, resolving issues and planning strategy and actions to make change happen.

The 90 minute sessions are the foundation to Leadership Development Programs, HIPO programs, Reflection Cafes, Cultural Change initiatives, and Event Workshops.

The topics can be used standalone, or can be combined with others to build a curriculum focused on specific business objectives; driving change, leadership, developing the organization, engaging people, venturing and innovating.

In this blog I have included the second part of the topic titled Decision Making: It’s not what you think. It has been split into 3 parts, with the third part below. To get real value out of this topic gather your management team together for discussion and reflection on your decision making process. Simply begin a discussion by answering the question(s) on each page, and let the discussion go wherever it needs to go.

As opposed to the classical view based on classroom training or e-learning, Henry and I believe managers and leaders learn best through reflection on natural experience in the light of conceptual ideas. This approach has been successfully used by hundreds of organizations around the world to deliver leadership and organizational development programs and initiatives.

If you like this, you may purchase further topics online from our library of over 75.

Following is the third part of the CoachingOurselves topic: Decision Making, It’s not what you think, by Henry Mintzberg:

Decision Making: It's not what you think by Henry Mintzberg (Part 2)

Introduction by Phil LeNir:

Following is the second excerpt of the themed discussion guides on Decision Making: It’s not what you think. Henry Mintzberg and I started a company called CoachingOurselves to develop these discussion topics.We brought a reflective approach to developing leaders and managers to the enterprise learning space.

The building blocks of our approach are 90 minute sessions by small groups of managers. Each session is guided by one of our themed discussion topics. Managers work through the topic together; sharing their knowledge, learning from experiences, resolving issues and planning strategy and actions to make change happen.

The 90 minute sessions are the foundation to Leadership Development Programs, HIPO programs, Reflection Cafes, Cultural Change initiatives, and Event Workshops.

The topics can be used standalone, or can be combined with others to build a curriculum focused on specific business objectives; driving change, leadership, developing the organization, engaging people, venturing and innovating.

In this blog I have included the second part of the topic titled Decision Making: It’s not what you think. It has been split into 3 parts, with the second part below. To get real value out of this topic gather your management team together for discussion and reflection on your decision making process. Simply begin a discussion by answering the question(s) on each page, and let the discussion go wherever it needs to go.

As opposed to the classical view based on classroom training or e-learning, Henry and I believe managers and leaders learn best through reflection on natural experience in the light of conceptual ideas. This approach has been successfully used by hundreds of organizations around the world to deliver leadership and organizational development programs and initiatives.

If you like this, you may purchase further topics online from our library of over 75.

Following is the second part of the CoachingOurselves topic: Decision Making, It’s not what you think, by Henry Mintzberg: