change management
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The anti-system voice and the greasy path for leaders and organisations
In our custom apolitical manner, the Effectiveness lab in this blog juxtaposes the anti-system influence in recent French politics against the politics of the modern organisation. We hope leaders listen to us, as this is something that brings leaders down all the time. The disregard and complacency towards the foe within your organisational eco-system, usually,… Continue reading
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COVID19 casualties: labour and the great-resignation – Series 1 of 2
Are we witnessing one of the more significant shifts at the modern workplace post-world-war 2? Amongst the many consequences of the COVID19 pandemic is employees quitting en masse. The pandemic situation has had an unintended consequence, and there is questioning by the white-collar workers of the status quo at the workplace. A status quo that was considered… Continue reading
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Justification for ‘running out of clock’ – 2020, the horrible year
Hello, 2020, the annus horibillis is behind us. Is it? And, don’t we have every reason to justify why we didn’t do whatever we wanted done. It’s human nature. Yes, it’s the year 2021 now, and already many things have happened to us in the last nine days since the new year. We are: a… Continue reading
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Management recession: time for an Organisational Effectiveness (OE) function? Series 2 of 3
It is apparent from Series 1 that the ongoing management-recession at firms needs a fix. And that the fix may be as simple as ‘functionalizing’ effectiveness i.e., making organization-effectiveness (OE) a formal function like finance, HR, etc and appointing a weighty honcho for the function So – would having an OE Tsar address the recession… Continue reading
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Organisations don’t change, people change
We all, time and again, experience solo or group institution-bashing tantrums. We whine about things small and big to do with the institution. Institution-bashing is so presumptuous that we don’t realize doing so doesn’t solve the organization’s problems and that the answer to whatever we choose to whine about lies with us and not the… Continue reading
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The new skills dilemma – the 4th revolution Series 1 of 2
Who should be interested in this blog series? Parents of generation-Z kids, millennials, HR leaders, the education industry, and CEOs. For the last 100 years plus, one needed hard-skills to get into the labour market. Hard skills like: civil-engineering, mechanical engineering, medicine, law, accounting, and finance, etc. University systems were designed to train students in hard-skills.… Continue reading
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Renting out replacement relatives – Human mercantilism Series 2 of 2
The family rental industry in Japan was born to deal with a social enigma – the disintegration of the traditional family into something too nuclear, and that no longer boasts of social relevance. The modern family numbers are so small that societal duties can no longer be accomplished by them. The answer, and for your… Continue reading
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The Harry and Meghan KISSTORY – Management hygiene lessons
Hello everyone, especially those of you that profess to best leadership and management practices. Do you, like us, acknowledge that Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding yesterday, is a first-class lesson in management-hygiene? The UK media houses have termed the event: KISSTORY There is something exquisite about the pairing of these two and the implications for:… Continue reading
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What will ultimately kill your brand?
Every organisation has a purpose for doing what it does. Organisations are living organisms – purposeful and with life. We are yet to come across an organisation that has been formed to do nothing. Even shell-companies, for those interested in the dark-world of tax evasion, have a purpose. So, if organisations have a life and… Continue reading
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CEO – organisational culture circuit-breaker? Series 2 of 2
In Series 1, we referred to his Holiness Pope Francis as not only the ‘CEO’ of the Catholic church but also the organisational-culture circuit breaker. What is a circuit breaker after all? A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by over-current, typically resulting from… Continue reading
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CEO – organisational culture circuit-breaker? Series 1 of 2
The connection between organisational-culture and the circuit-breaker may come as a surprise to many of you. Why should we even think of ‘breaking’ as opposed to ‘taming’ culture? After all, when it comes to matters change, contemporary change management theory espouses win-win, incremental and not big-bang approaches. Well, we are talking organisational-culture here. Culture lies… Continue reading
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Sanitising change management at your company
Change is a constant factor in the life of all organisations. Most people fear change. More often than not, change is a constant distraction to company staff. Even excellent and focused employees can be unsettled by change. When staff are disturbed, firm productivity suffers. Anxiety amongst staff causes worry, stress, and undermines commitment to the… Continue reading
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How not to manage recruitment
You all have conducted interviews for junior, mid-career, senior, and executive positions. What do you look for in your new hires? If the online/print-media advertisement is something to go by, in your new hires, you are looking for all or some of these elements: work experience, academic qualifications, nationality in some instances, gender, particular behavior,… Continue reading
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How not to manage change
There currently is no better lab on change-management than the polity of the United States of America under new President Donald Trump. At the Effectiveness lab, we have watched happenings in America over the last two weeks – and it is not far fetched to write on this blog, always and still apolitical, that they… Continue reading
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Problem solving – like finding a needle in a haystack
At certain points on your leadership journey, you will have confronted matters related to organisational complexity, persistent problems, as well as multiple and ineffective solutions to problems. At times, solutions to problems evade us – problem solving can become a long, painful and elusive solution seeking process. Effective solutions can elude us. Organisational problem solving… Continue reading
About Me
Apollo B. Gabazira is an Ugandan OD. junkie fascinated by matters that render organisations/individuals effective or not. He blogs on effective leadership and management. He is a devoted green-farmer and breeds the Ayrshire cow at Nakabugu, Luuka district, Uganda. Apollo is quite effective at what he chooses to do.