What do US contemporary business writer, Patrick Lencioni, XXIst century most famous neuroscientist, Portuguese Professor Antonio Damasio, Ancient Greece philosopher Aristotle, and Chilean born psychologist and mathematician Marcial Losada have in common, apart from the fact that we often quote them in our work? Lencioni came up with the observation (see article on our blog) that teams that were focused…
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behaviour
Social Constructionism and the power of engagement (by Marvin Faure)
Saturday May 5th, 2012 0 commentsI’d like to take the opportunity to build on Michael’s post “The US 7th Cavalry and the Quantum Zeno Effect” and introduce explicitly an idea that has been hinted at a few times here without ever being directly addressed. Michael’s main point was that, very often, top management unwittingly undermines employee engagement by an inappropriate choice of words, by being…
The most successful posts of 2011
Saturday December 10th, 2011 0 commentsOur blog is now two and half years old and we would like to thank you all for your loyalty over that period. As you will have noticed, we changed to Mailchimp this year. This company sends you the weekly e-mail and confirms with your filters and firewalls that Enablers is not a source of spam. They also give us…
Smile, and the world smiles with you… by Michael Newman
Saturday November 12th, 2011 0 commentsIn a non-descript, grey and often wet corner of East Manchester, just off the ring motorway, you will find a large furniture shop with the not especially inspiring name of ‘Housing Units’.1 There are many other stores in the Greater Manchester area from which to furnish a house, but there is something unusual about a visit to Housing Units. If…
“We’re Number one: What could we possibly learn from you?” by Michael Newman
Saturday October 8th, 2011 0 commentsOur success comes from being smart; yours is simply due to luck. We benefit from our carefully crafted strategies; you just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We are confident; you are arrogant…. Dismissing the opposition is a comforting pastime, but becomes a real danger if they are hungrier than us. In the Enablers Network,…
The emergence of Talents Networks
Saturday September 17th, 2011 1 commentIn the true spirit of P.F.E. (Proudly Found Elsewhere), so typical of the Open Source Economy, I borrowed the title (and a lot of the content) of this post to Neil Perkin, one of my colleagues in Gerd Leonhard’s “Futures Agency”. I’d like to thank him for the source of inspiration his article was for me and hopefully will be…
My best interview on the future of Leadership
Saturday September 3rd, 2011 5 comments(NEW CLIP OF INTERVIEW IN PORTUGUESE ADDED AT END OF THIS POST) During my recent stay in São-Paulo, I was interviewed by Patricia Bispo, who runs an excellent site dedicated to people and leadership issues. Her questions helped me clarify my thoughts on the future of leadership. Here are, in English, the key parts of the interview: Patricia Bispo –…
"I had no choice…"
Sunday May 1st, 2011 1 commentLinda Perrat is one of the most amazing coaches I know. I meet her when unusual challenges take place, at personal or professional level in my life and always leave her Parisian office/apartment looking positively at options about the future. Ever since I met her, she strongly refused and corrected me when using: “I don’t have a choice” sentence: One…
“Do you create the conditions for your team to hold truly strategic conversations?”
Saturday March 12th, 2011 5 commentsTwo years ago, I was invited by my daughter’s school in order to hold a conversation with the younger pupils, as they were reported to be increasingly stressed by all the things they heard and saw from their parents during the worst moments of the financial crisis. When, at the end, children asked me what job I was in, the…
“Why the Enablers Network looks more like the Barbarians than the Real Madrid”
Sunday January 16th, 2011 3 commentsGiven the potential impact of the work we are invited to do, I am frequently asked by the clients we meet for the first time, to explain how we are organized. My shortest reply is that we are closer to “The Barbarians F.C.” than to the Real Madrid… A study from Harvard University[1] suggests that the Real Madrid is “one…