Are corporate leaders losing the plot?

The employer-employee relationship is a voluntary union that must be based on respect and trust. Which is why the trend for snooping on employees' every move is not just a fundamentally flawed strategy, but suggests that organisations have completely lost the plot when it comes to managing their people.

Can we be more responsible?

Simon wants to know how his mid-sized organisation can be more environmentally responsibility and wants to learn more about the merits of adopting a carbon neutral position. John Blackwell has some insights as to the real issues and benefits.

So what is a normal job?

The nature of work is changing far quicker than the economic world around us. But this means that a lot of things that organisations and managers used to take for granted are just no longer delivering or sustainable - whether they like it or not.

Business travel – risky business?

The recent bedlam at airports in the aftermath of the terrorist plot in the UK has served to highlight how unpredictable and volatile life can be for today's air traveller. Yet beyond the personal stories of mayhem and disruption, there is a massive and serious issue for businesses to address.

The business of climate change

With the imperative to focus on climate change, maybe now is the time for all businesses and governmental organisations to enhance the effectiveness of their workplaces – for the sake of our planet.

The power of trust vs trust in power

Too much management is still fuelled by insecurities over the need to 'control' and 'observe' employees. But this obsession with line-of-sight management has to change if organisations are to face up to the significant changes we're experiencing in labour force availability.

Winning with virtual teams

As workplace change becomes an irresistible force, forward-looking organisations are launching coordinated efforts towards fitter, more agile and more responsive working environments.

The Business of splendid isolation

While changes in the nature of work present a great opportunity for enhancing business performance, disconnections and gaps in the goals and visions for workplace components often allow opportunities to slip away.

Addressing the communication continuum

For all the improvements in communications technologies over the past 15 years, has the effectiveness of our organisations actually improved? And if so, how?

Lipstick on the pig?

Better office design alone cannot deliver better productivity. Workplace dynamics are a complex set of interdependencies and above all, they are all about people.

So, what's the office for, then?

The office remains is as it is today because that's how we imagined it yesterday. The office is a creation of humanity – it's a simple invention. Consequently, we can change it – it's not set in stone.

Nurturing the organisation

Healthy ecosystems require and thrive on diversity. And a good office, like a good garden, requires tending if it is going to flourish.

Sending the intended message

Effective workplace design can convey, more clearly than we might desire, just what we value. The physical cues of the office send environmental messages. Some are intentional, some not.

Why is workplace change so slow?

The slow pace of change in workplace design stems from most managers still believing in old myths about working patterns. We may all live in the twenty-first century, but many organisations continue to inhabit a nineteenth-century mind-set about work.

Raise your aspirations

Unlike the sweatshops of the 19th Century, contemporary offices rarely endanger our health on a daily basis. Instead, they just bore us to tears. We need to raise our game.
About John Blackwell

John Blackwell is a business transformation specialist who helps organisations optimise diminishing resources of people, space, time, and technology.

Beginning his career in nuclear research, John spent nearly a decade as managing director at telco MCI, during which time he created advanced internet and business effectiveness strategies.

The mid 1990's saw him head IBM's Business Transformation practice, where he developed IBM's methodologies for Knowledge Management, Organisational Learning and Collaborative Teaming.

John is the author of several management books, including "Knowledge Management: A State of the Art Guide" and the forthcoming "Who's Driving Us to Work: The Flexible Workers".

He regularly lectures on emerging business management topics, is a Visiting Fellow at three universities, on the advisory council for Surrey University, and is a Director of Research at Henley Management College.

John is the founder of research-based business transformation and management consultancy, JBA.

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