organizational change

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

July 27, 2010

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 helm. [...]

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

June 17, 2010

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 making [...]

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The Horrible Work-Life Truth I Learned at the Harvard Business School Reunion

June 7, 2010

That’s one headline for it. Another one might be: “How to make a table of women with graduate degrees cry.” I could spend a bit of time trying to set the scene to give you some perspective, but let me cut straight to the chase. Sitting at a table, talking with my female friends– some [...]

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Could BP have avoided the Gulf Oil Spill if it had more Women Executives?

May 26, 2010

How much has the paucity of women executives at BP and the overall gender imbalance in BP’s managerial ranks contributed to the Gulf Oil Spill? I’m betting that had there been more women in the executive ranks at British Petroleum, more women (especially from inside the Company) on BP’s Board of Directors, and more women [...]

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3 Types of Employee Engagement Advocates: Which type are you?

May 17, 2010

Is there ever a time when our reactions don’t reflect our own perspectives on an issue? The whole wisdom behind the dictum: “Seek First to Understand” turns on our awareness of the near-impossibility of uncoupling our initial reactions from our personal standpoint. Our experience with an issue, as well as our general world views, are [...]

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Heaping Scorn & Criticism on Feminist Advocates at Newsweek

March 24, 2010

This week’s story about feminists at Newsweek who have publicly challenged that magazine for failing to make progress against gender discrimination encouraged me, as I’m sure it encouraged many others. To see someone, anyone, make a prominent critique of a prominent organization, and then to have that organization make this criticism public, should have inspired [...]

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Does the iPad Signal a Change in Apple’s Core Brand & Identity?

February 2, 2010

If products reflect an organization’s values and an organization’s identity, does Apple’s new iPad tell us something about where Apple as a company is headed? And, if that’s where Apple is going, do we all want to go there too? Here’s a proposition: Apple as an organization is changing, from an organization that’s “about” creativity [...]

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Work-Life Initiatives Are the Foundation of Authentic Organizations

January 29, 2010

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 invited [...]

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The (Feminist) Business Bloggers’ Lament

January 26, 2010

In the past several weeks I’ve been working with two different groups of businesswomen, developing social-media based movements to advance social change in and around the workplace. Conversations with these women have been intellectually challenging, inspiring and empowering. And they have also been oddly confessional, about a problem that — in my opinion — it’s [...]

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When Will “Social Business” Become Social Change Business?

January 7, 2010

Just a quick rant here, triggered by and not quite in response to Rachel Happe‘s post on The Social Organization & Womenomics. In her post, Rachel wonders whether a truly ‘social’ organization or business might be more accommodating to the real-world, real-life pressures of managing work and family demands, not only for women but also [...]

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