The Collaborative Cockpit

Good managers are neither ideologues nor cynics

Before the acronym CRM was hijacked by Customer Relationship Management, it stood for Cockpit Resource Management. Developed by NASA in the 1970s, it was a collaborative practice aimed at curbing disasters due to human error.

This original CRM was adopted by commercial airlines and is still a key part of aircrew training. It’s credited with a two-decade fall in the number of aircraft mishaps caused by people rather than malfunction.

Click to read more ...

Silent solutions: how keeping quiet can help

Ever tried to manage a problem by not offering a solution?

A lot of us automatically give advice. It’s not just a Mars and Venus thing.  Men and women both do it. Sometimes it is the right thing to do; sometimes it’s not.

We are not all natural listeners. For most of my life, I did not think listening was an action. I thought only the people talking were actually doing something. My wife has often pointed out the error in this.

Click to read more ...

Getting out at the top

Nice work if you can get it

Sooner or later, entrepreneurs sell their business. It’s tradable just like any other asset.  Ideally, they do so at the right time, preferably when their life’s work is highly valued.

It’s different to “getting out at the top”. That’s a more dubious concept. For a start, it’s hard to do. It’s often more by chance than design. Can you really predict the top? I can’t. In forty years in finance, sometimes I’ve been right; sometimes wrong.

Click to read more ...

Is the leadership thing taking us in the right direction?

Real change doesn’t start in the corner office.

Want to disempower someone? Just tell them exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Don’t tell them why it needs to be done. Avoid any reference to the importance of their input, and never ask if they have any ideas on how it might be done differently.

Command and control had a good run through the industrial revolution. It didn’t start running out of steam until the middle of last century. Even today it persists as a leadership option, often clothed in jargon about complexity and the need for simplicity. Got a problem? Don’t worry; we’ll sort it out with a new policy.

Click to read more ...

Smart men, smarter women

How diversity counters complexity.

The real driver behind the diversity debate is not social justice for women or minorities; it’s the need for better decision-making. The business environment is not just more complicated. It’s also more complex. Managing complexity requires diverse input.

Click to read more ...