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My 2019 Reading Challenge
Last year in September, I decided to go back and read more. I have been an avid reader in the past, but in the previous three years, the number of books that I had read decreased consistently. There was always something more appealing, probably a Netflix series to watch. I kept browsing a lot on the web, but it’s not the same. So in...
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Followership and Leadership
Management is often assumed to be the story of Leader and Followers.But truly understanding Followership is critical to understand how organisations work. We are so ingrained in the idea that Leadership is critical, that we tend to forget that a Leader alone won’t be able to achieve much. The role of Leadership is overrated in organisations. The role of Followership is instead underrated. With this article, I want to...
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Being Good Enough
Taking part in a recent event, one of the speaker at a certain point mentioned a sentence that made me think. We need to have the courage to settle for Good Enough Results sometime. Good Enough seems a sentence that underpins a failure, not reaching results. But this is only apparent. We indeed need to accept that we can’t be on top of performance every day. We can’t...
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Giving Thanks: the Power of Gratitude
Today is Thanksgiving in the USA, one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. The amount of people that travel to reach their families and friends is incredible, especially for a country we often assume to be cold and capitalist. The spiritual value at the core of this holiday is gratitude and often unconsidered quality in a working environment. Yet there are scientific...
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Organise without managers: is it possible at scale?
Organise without managers. A dream that many seem to nurture. A few months ago, I already wrote a post with what I thought was a thought-provoking title: do we still need managers? The answer I tried to give back then was that we certainly need proper management, but this does not automatically equate to keep the old hierarchy of managers. The debate about organising without managers is not...
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#Movember
I’m joining the Movember movement this year, growing a moustache in support for raising awareness on some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention. Started by the Movember Foundation in 2003, it quickly has grown to a large scale movement, with more than 5 million people supporting it every year. How can you...
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Jazz and Leadership: 6 big lessons from Herbie Hancock’s Concert.
Yesterday I attended the Herbie Hancock concert at the Conservatorio of Milan, opening act of the JazzMi Festival. It was a genuinely great experience, to see such a master of jazz play. We had perfect placing (third row). Not more than 10 meters separated us from this real master. But am not here to comment on the (exceptional) music. Instead, as the concert rolled, I could observe...
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The future of HR? Is Human.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reasoning (again I would say) on the role of HR. I’ve been especially challenged by the idea that “HR is a job for losers“. I have tried to understand where we can still make the difference, which around (re)taking ownership of the relationship between the “work” and the way the organisation uses it. I think I’ve now...
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How do we get sh*t done. The Future of Work and a new paradigm for HR.
Too many HR professionals still consider traditional employees to be their only “customer”. Companies today however have redefined the concept of work by interacting with multiple types of talents. If this is clearly defining a new future of work, it also impacts how we define the role of HR. Since the beginning of organisational theories, social scientists and managers kept struggling on how much...
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Design Thinking for HR
Design Thinking has already been identified as a key transformation element for HR, in its quest to improve Employee Experience. However I argue that in many cases this is just used as a make-up methodology, without a full understanding of the potential for change. Design Thinking is one of the key components of the “Digital DNA” that I suggest based on the Three Mindsets...