Institutional Corruption
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- Created on Monday, 21 December 2009 23:58
In August of 2009 Lawrence Lessig started as Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at the University of Harvard.
"His current work addresses "institutional corruption" relationships which are legal, even currently ethical, but which weaken public trust in an institution."
In his opening must-watch-lecture he explains what his definiion of institutional corruption is. Lessig tells us how it effects peoples' trust in these institutions and what some of the causes are. As a true scholar and scientist he then explains why it is important to study the phenomenon, how he intends to do that and last but not least how that may/will benefit all of us.
The interesting, or worrying point - whatever your perspective might be - he makes is, that the problem of institutional corruption not only affects all of us (does not matter where you live!) but starts with us.
"Nobody picked up the phone and told the captain commanding the ship was drunk!"
While Lessig focuses primarily on public institutions, there is a lot to learn for organziations from what he has to say about this today and undoubtedly even more in the near future.
When people:
- look the other way,
- when the interests of a few trump the interests of many,
- when decisions are no longer based on facts but on fads,
- when nobody picks up the phone
then there's a heap of trouble waiting for us.
So what can we do about it? We need:
- Courage
- Cultural change
- Governance
Next time we'll look a bit more in depth at ways to address this problem from an organizational perspective.
Now sit back and enjoy the excellent lecture. (Note that Lessig does not adhere to the 1 slide per 3 minutes "rule".)
Short Version of Lecture
Long Version of Lecture
De-escalating run-away projects
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- Created on Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:07
A common well known problem a lot of public and private organizations face are so called run-away projects and programs. We call a project a run-away when there is an escalation of cost without any real result(s) to show for it. There are ample examples documented in the literature. There are also quite a few good solutions documented. In one of the next articles we'll provide a few examples of some of those run-away projects.
In a recent article1in Communications of the ACM the authors provide an interesting so-called de-escalating maturity model (DMM) trying to deal with run-away projects. The model is based on three approaches to de-escalation management:
- The Crisis Management Approach
- The Change Management Approach
- The Problem Solving Approach
The model:
As with most maturity models the authors identify 5 levels:
Top 3 Tools of my Trade
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- Created on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 08:00
"Erik, what tools can you recommend me?"
Quite often, both as a (project) manager and trainer, do I get asked that question:
I usually counter that question with a counter question:
"Tools for what?"
Mostly I get a reply in the order of:
"To be a good/successful (project) manager"
I won't go into the topic of what constitutes a good and/or successful manager. Yes, there is a difference! I will give you though, my top 3 tools-of-my- trade answer.
Most people are somewhat surprised when I give them my answer. I suspect that has to do with the fact that a lot might expect something like MS-Project, Primavera or some sort of electronic tool. No it's much simpler. My Top 3 Tools-of-my-Trade are:
1 TRUST
2 HUMOUR
3 COMMON SENSE
The reaction by the recipients of this answer is quite often a combination of puzzlement, surprise and amusement. Although my answer is very serious I cannot help but be amused each time I see the reactions. Let me explain a bit what makes me give this answer.
Better Decisions?
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- Created on Thursday, 08 October 2009 02:53
In a recent article in the Strategy magazine the authors identify 4 red flag conditions that may lead to bad decisions and 4 safeguards to prevent those poor decisions.
They are:
Four types of error |
Four types of safeguard |
Misleading prejudgement |
Experience and data |
Misleading experience |
Governance |
Inappropriate self-interest |
Group debate and challenge |
Inappropriate attacements |
Monitoring |
Although this list does not imply to be complete nor do the safeguards imply to be perfect but it is always a good thing to be aware of the potential of "Bad Decisions"
Problem with any decision made in the context of an organization, and especially the ones higher up the command line, is that they are hard to challenge. We tend to mix the person with the decison.
Success Defined
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- Created on Friday, 12 December 2008 05:23
Success = Strategy Achieved
Strategy = Success Defined.