Performing in an Uncertain World: 5 Essential Keys for Organizations
Mission, values and meaning Professional environments are more and more characterized by uncertainty and the unexpected. If I have understood the work of business managers correctly, their job is just about the simplest in the world because we only ask one thing of them: to guarantee results. The only problem is …
The growing pains of self-organization
Is your organization moving toward a less bureaucratic structure? Is it also looking to remove traditional hierarchical decision-making? Congratulations! Many organizations are undertaking this journey to tackle the growing complexity of the modern workplace. In the context of the world we live in, companies must evolve in this direction to …
The importance of remembering being the learner
My son plays bowling in a junior league every Saturday morning. He started playing last year, which led us to our weekly Sunday bowling night together. One of the side benefits this creates is all the time we get to spend together now to share our stories. Because he loves …
NYEPI – A Day of Silence
A few days ago, my friend Caro, who is my writing coach, sent me a Whatsapp message: “Julia, we need to postpone our session which was planned on March the 7th. It is Nyepi in Bali, the Day of Silence.” And suddenly, a memory comes to my mind. In March …
It’s time to step into your personal leadership!
Leadership is something that can be very hard to define sometimes. For example, the classic definition is to examine the distinction between leadership and management. In some organizations, you also need to make a distinction between leadership and directivity. We seem to forget sometimes that leadership does not only happen …
Heroes Are Among Us
Heroes are rare gems, references, key players, people who absolutely need to be there. They are linked to projects that do not start without them. Impossible to change something without their approval, they are essential to the proper operation of the business; their knowledge is guarded and sought after. In …
That’s not Agile, that’s Lean…
At a recent Agile meetup, while discussing how human resources could best serve the needs of their Agile teams, I offered some people the opinion that HR should seek to hire people who lived by the values and principles of an Agile organization. I went so far as to offer …
Agile leadership is the key to self-organization
Team self-organization is a powerful force that can foster innovation and motivate team members to do great things. The idea is simple: let the people closest to the customer, those with the greatest insight into customer needs, make the decisions about what they deliver and how they deliver it. Yet …
Professional Agile Leadership Essentials
Becoming an Agile organization is a profound transformation that requires senior leaders, middle managers, and agile team members to change the way that they organize their work, manage that work, and measure the results of the work. Agile teams cannot do this on their own; they need help from the …
In service of what do you lead?
In service of whom? In service of what? These are two powerful questions leaders should ask themselves more often. While some people seem to be natural leaders, behind the scenes they lead in service of something. This article will explore the concept of the leadership noble cause; what is it …