Management Quotes

It isn’t surprising that most organizations hold people to the confines of their resumes. It is risky to hire or reassign people based on their potential, rather than their experience. But inviting talented people to explore their options is not as risky or costly as paying them when they’re disengaged, or losing them altogether to the competition.

It is not unusual for people to try on different roles before they find the one (or two, or three) for which they are best suited. For every airline pilot or doctor who knows his or her passion at nine years old, there are likely more who are still trying to figure it out at 30. Indeed, interests and goals may shift over time. But by and large, people don’t find the right fit until they “taste, touch, and feel” it.
— Robin Athey

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Human Resources

By focusing on the end points of managing talent (acquisition and retention) rather than on the middle ones (deployment and development), organizations ignore the things that matter most to employees. When this happens, companies set themselves up for inevitable churn, which becomes especially hazardous in a tight labor market.

…Rather than focus on metrics and outcomes (”acquisition” and “retention”), they must concentrate on the things that employees care about most: developing in ways that stretch their capabilities, deploying onto work that engages their heads and hearts, and connecting to the people who will help them achieve their objectives. By focusing on these three things, attraction and retention largely take care of themselves.
— Robin Athey

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Human Resources

Experience, direct or indirect, is the source of tacit knowledge. Stored in people, tacit knowledge is actuated (shared) though trust formation. Trust develops in predictable network patterns that by their nature run counter (are mis-aligned) to hierarchical organization. If one treats tacit knowledge as a natural resource embodied in humans (or human resource), then knowing where and how to mine the networks for tacit knowledge is the turn-key solution for rapid innovation.
— Karen Stephenson

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Innovation and Organizational Behavior

When rapid or radical change is called for, executives must turn to the networks within their organization. Key positions in the network mobilize it to flexibly adapt to the exigencies of the moment. Three prototypical patterns emerge. The first pattern is the hub, as in a ‘hub and spoke’ system on a bicycle wheel. This pattern represents an optimal distribution system for centralizing work processes. The second pattern is the gatekeeper that is positioned on critical pathways connecting hubs to each other. These gatekeepers serve as important links or bridges within an organization. The third pattern is the pulsetaker, someone who is maximally connected to everyone via the shortest routes. Pulsetakers have their finger on the pulse of the organization and know what everyone is thinking and feeling. If one adds these patterns together, the DNA of a network is revealed. This cultural code is a highly structured form of interaction at the core of any network.
— Karen Stephenson

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Change Management and Organizational Behavior

Networks are based on trust. Because trust is determined through face-to-face interactions, one needs to appreciate the profound and stark truth about networks: ‘You don’t look like me, you don’t dress like me, you don’t think like me, therefore I don’t want to know or understand you.’ This fetish for the familiar is fundamentally tribal and resistant to the heterogeneous qualities of hierarchical organization. So the last, and perhaps the most important, point to make about knowledge and networks is that, contrary to popular opinion, there is a dark side to networks.

They are exclusionary groupings, based on like seeking like, and mask a fundamental fear of differences. A network is the most natural (and most ancient) form of grouping. Its cultural complement is found in hierarchies.
— Karen Stephenson

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Knowledge and Organizational Behavior

To be an effective leader one must demonstrate a low need for approval, because as innovators, leaders have to challenge the comfort zones of the majority, and rejection is part of that territory.
— Sean D. Jasso, Goran Dragolovic

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Leadership

I think that most of our intelligence is based on pattern recognition. Human thinking is actually not very good at logical and analytical thinking. We are very good at recognizing patterns.
— Ray Kurzweil

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Intelligence and Thought

Very early on, the founders of startups make an important choice. Do they want success or control? Neither is bad so long as the choice is explicit. I’ve picked success. And success implies giving up control — hiring people who are much better than you, or being willing to be the janitor if that’s what’s required.
— Joe Kraus

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Entrepreneurship

Nothing demotivates people like the equal treatment of unequals.
— Joe Kraus

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Management and Organizational Behavior

We grow because you can’t otherwise provide an opportunity for talent. You have to provide that, or else change your view of who your talent should be.
— Jon R. Katzenbach

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Human Resources and Organizational Behavior