Organizational Change

Changing the CEO at BP: It won’t make a difference, except where it will

July 27, 2010

Tweet For the past 90 days and counting, we knew this day was coming. You didn’t need an Irish bookmaker to tell you that Tony Hayward’s tenure as CEO of BP was coming to a close. Any organization facing a crisis like the BP Oil Spill would be likely to replace the guy at the […]

Read the full article →

BP’s Beyond Petroleum: Hypocrisy, or caught in the act of learning?

June 17, 2010

Tweet Some people actually believe(d) that BP was making an authentic effort to move “Beyond Petroleum”. I was quite surprised to discover this early in June, in conversation with an organizational change consultant who specializes is sustainability change. This consultant explained that, in contrast to other energy companies that he had worked with, BP was […]

Read the full article →

Work-Life Initiatives Are the Foundation of Authentic Organizations

January 29, 2010

Tweet Earlier this week I met with a group of organizational change advocates, each of whom is dedicated to reshaping the relationship between work and life. Work-Life issues per se aren’t really my gig, although I’ve had a fair amount of work-life conflict in my day as an employee and as a manager. However, I […]

Read the full article →

Organizational Change Using Authentic Attributes

December 14, 2009

Tweet My friend Charles just took a new job ‘making rain’ for a creative services agency. The agency is well-known in its industry for producing top-quality product, but its business isn’t growing. Why has their business stopped growing? Charles thinks that the problem with the agency is that it is “Too German”. What does it […]

Read the full article →

Wal-Mart Knocks Off the Girl Scouts

August 3, 2009

Tweet (Welcome MacLeans Readers… Please join the conversation! ) Just when you think your opinion about Wal-mart might be changing… Just when you think that maybe, just maybe, Wal-mart was learning to be a better citizen… Wal-mart turns around and does something really … despicable. It’s not discriminating against women, strong-arming suppliers, polluting neighborhoods or […]

Read the full article →

Authentic Playlist at Misogyny Free Prom

May 15, 2009

Tweet A shout out to my girlfriends at Bust magazine, home of the GirlWideWeb and all things hip & 3rd wave feminist . They share the news today of an advocacy movement by The Women’s Health and Issues Club of the high school in Arcadia CA, which has resulted in a prom music playlist that […]

Read the full article →

Flexible Downsizing and Sexism: Should we be worried?

March 10, 2009

Tweet There is a movement afoot to link organizations’ responses to the economic crisis to larger social goals, like sustainability and work family balance. Anytime we can get two valuable outcomes for one business decision, "that’s a good thing." Often, however, business decisions made for one reason have unintended repercussions. Take the movement towards alternatives […]

Read the full article →

5 Reasons Why Being Authentic Can Be Bad For Your Organization

March 5, 2008

Tweet Being authentic requires constant vigilance. Authentic organizations need constantly to monitor the relationship between their identity, their image, and their actions. Ideally, the organization wants to catch (and fix) any misalignments before others notice, because these misalignments can easily be interpreted as signs that the organization isn’t authentic or isn’t intending to remain authentic. […]

Read the full article →

Work-Life Initiatives are the foundation of Authentic Organizations

January 28, 0010

Tweet Earlier this week I met with a group of organizational change advocates, each of whom is dedicated to reshaping the relationship between work and life. Work-Life issues per se aren’t really my gig, although I’ve had a fair amount of work-life conflict in my day as an employee and as a manager. However, I […]

Read the full article →