The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

The Two Faces of Accountability

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Accountability When things go wrong there is a simple solution. Politicians do it, journalists do it, managers do it and even my children do it.   When things go wrong we search for somebody to blame “hold accountable”.  It’s in our nature. Fortunately it is more nuanced than that. There are two ways we can […]

What Are You Talking About?

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Does your language define you? The Sami people in the far north of Scandinavia have lots of words for snow. Soavli — Wet slushy snow Vahca — New snow Guoldu — Very fine snow that blows up from the ground when there is slight breeze Skavvi — Snow with an icy crust Snow surrounds them, […]

Corporate Infighting

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The battle On any day in any corporation, you will see barbed e-mails, poisonous meetings, water fountain backstabbings and all-out turf wars. This is common or garden corporate infighting and nothing to write home about, though it may cause some gossip in the pub. Organisations are chock-full of infighting: Usually, the conflict simmers below the […]

The World’s Most Useless Document

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The org chart When you join a new business the people in H.R. will give you something like this: As good corporate citizens we all seize this as one of the most important pieces of paper we will be given. It tells us how the concern works. It is critical information, it tells us how […]

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