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:

Decision Making: It’s not what you think by Henry Minztberg | Part 1

Introduction by Phil LeNir:

In 2007, Henry Mintzberg and I started a company called CoachingOurselves. 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 topic titled Decision Making: It’s not what you think. It has been split into 3 parts, with the first part below, and subsequent parts to be released in the coming weeks. 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 first part of the CoachingOurselves topic: Decision Making, It’s not what you think, by Henry Mintzberg:

Crafting Strategy (Mintzberg) and Teaching Smart People to Learn (Argyris)

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

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

Video (2 min) – Crafting Strategy (Henry Mintzberg, video by Bobbie Kite, 11 May 2013)

 Intelligent summary of Professor Mintzberg’s ideas on crafting strategy - a concept which is quite different from the notion of strategic planning, as among others advocated by Professor Michael Porter. If you like the video, in this article Henry Mintzberg explains his thoughts in more depth. And if you want to know more about the different viewpoints of Mintzberg and Porter, here is an article at Forbes by Karl Moore (yet another professor): Porter or Mintzberg: Whose view of strategy is the most relevant today?

Based on his lectures and seminars, Henry Mintzberg created a themed discussion workbook called Crafting Strategy. Hundreds of management teams around the world have used this topic workbook to run a self-directed 90 minute session in which they rethink their strategy process and business unit or organizations strategy.

For more information contact us online or call +1 781 489 3418.

Essay - Teaching smart people how to learn (Chris Argyris)

This essay is as pertinent now as when Chris Argyris wrote it, some 20 years ago.

Argyris: "Any company that aspires to succeed in the tougher business environment of the 1990s must first resolve a basic dilemma: success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don’t know how to learn. What’s more, those members of the organization that many assume to be the best at learning are, in fact, not very good at it. I am talking about the well-educated, high-powered, high-commitment professionals who occupy key leadership positions in the modern corporation.

Most companies not only have tremendous difficulty addressing this learning dilemma; they aren’t even aware that it exists. The reason: they misunderstand what learning is and how to bring it about. As a result, they tend to make two mistakes in their

efforts to become a learning organization.

First, most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers and employees must also look inward.

They need to reflect critically on their own behavior, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organization’s problems, and then change how they act. In particular, they must learn how the very way they go about defining and solving problems can be a source of problems in its own right."

MarchFifteen and a Culture of Learning

Edyta Pacuk is owner of MarchFifteen Consulting. MarchFifteen is a unique partner to CoachingOurselves, comprised of trained psychologists and certified coaches who assess, develop, and transform leaders and organizations.  A while back I interviewed her on how they are using our themed topic discussion guides in their projects to develop a culture of learning.

What is MarchFifteen Consulting? We are a group of industrial psychologists who focus on helping our clients forward their businesses by getting the best out of their people. Our overarching mission is to connect organizations to a higher purpose.  By anchoring their vision in something larger than life, they are able to attract interesting people, their engagement increases, and profits follow.  This includes a focus on organizations’ moral fabrications and underpinnings. Without being arrogant, we are selective about whom we consider will be good clients for us, or rather, whom we will be good consultants for.  We are good for organizations that really want to make a difference – those that feel HR and OD initiatives are not just a check box and are looking for true change.  In order to have a long term impact, we need to become intimate with clients, partner with them, and understand what they think and what keeps them up at night.  This selective client base helps us give them a return on investment. What type of work does MarchFifteen Consulting do? One of the projects that we’re most proud of is called the Accelerated Leadership Development Process. It creates an environment that challenges participants to do their best possible work. The learnings they harvest throughout are sustained for a longer period than if they were to take a traditional workshop; we believe the learning never stops. In this approach, one of the core elements is creating a community of interest.  This is creating a learning journey for participants, which is largely about them learning from each other and together.  Ongoing conversations around the big issues that are important to participants is paramount to this project’s success. How does CoachingOurselves help? CoachingOurselves is an essential element in facilitating these conversations. The biggest value that we see from the CoachingOurselves sessions is that they give participants the time and space to have unhurried conversations about business, where their role in the organization is less relevant than the current goal or mandate. I am always surprised about the knowledge that exists in a room.  Having come from an adult education background, I was trained to believe that you need a subject matter expert in the room.  I have abandoned that arrogant notion.  If you allow people the time and space for introspection, they have tools inside them, and if not, others in the room do.  The CoachingOurselves methodology is very respectful of the contribution of employees. It facilitates robust conversations that help participants automatically generate ideas to make the organization run and perform better.  But this is also the caveat of CoachingOurselves.  If the client is not ready, with individuals prepared to brainstorm and implement ideas on how to improve the organization, then this is not the right methodology. Closing Thoughts on CoachingOurselves? The reason we are so enthusiastic and excited about using this methodology and why we see it as such an interesting part of our service offering is because it works. We believe that people learn the most from experience – coaching and mentoring is of utmost importance, formal training of least.  CoachingOurselves easily fits into the Center of Creative Leadership’s 70:20:10 model for learning.  This model states that managers learn 70% through on-the-job experiences, 20% through sharing and networking, and only 10% through formal classroom development. CoachingOurselves enhances the 70:20 components by enabling participants to talk about relevant experience. You can almost get a group therapy moment and this is what guarantees the “stick-ability” of the learning and creates enthusiastic and engaging sessions. CoachingOurselves creates a culture of real learning and development in organizations. For more information on MarchFifteen Consulting,click here!