Archives June 2020

At Teal Unicorn, we believe the purpose of a manager is to make work better: better results from the work, better lives for those doing the work, and a better society within which the work is done.

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Work is political.

It is no longer acceptable to treat work as a values-neutral place focused on the creation of value (for shareholders and incidentally customers).
Customers, partners, staff, and society at large all expect organisations to reflect their values.

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I’m still sure that consulting, coaching, and training are better in person. Virtual is adequate for most things. That’s not the same as optimal. Virtual is good for some things and better only for very few things.

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Standardised work is becoming an ever smaller part of our work.
– Change is constant.
– Too much is unknown.
– Knowledge work is intangible, voluntary, and shared. It’s value is subjective. It is unmeasurable.

Efficiency and effectiveness are no longer the goals. Agility is.

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From time to time in the consulting business, you hear a variation on “You talk positively about Client X, but I heard it didn’t go so well for you”. Let’s talk about what good looks like in a consulting engagement.

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I don’t believe anyone who knows for sure what to do. I don’t mean “We should build an electric car”. That’s vision. I mean “We can cover the roof with solar cells”. That’s hubris. There only one way to know if that is practicable.

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If you think:
….people should leave their social issues at the door when they come to work …
…your profits can be weighed against somebody else’s life….
…the purpose of a company is to make money….
….society’s problem is not my organisation’s problem …

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This year is only getting started.

I had to explain to someone today that Covid-19 isn’t over, we aren’t on our way back to normal.
There will be wave after wave of infection. More lockdowns.

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