All posts by Rob England

Individual accountability

Let’s examine the concept of individual responsibility and individual accountability. 

They are essential for a centralised command-and-control hierarchy. While it is necessary for coercive management to be able to pin failure to meet outcomes on an individual, it is counterproductive to better ways of working. 

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Eat the rich

Here’s that graph again that shows up from time to time, revealing how capitalist owners have been siphoning off increasing productivity for their own enrichment at the cost of employees.

What is unusual this time is that it comes from that bastion of capitalism, McKinsey, who said

the amount of US national income captured by business profits continued to increase, while employment and wages failed to keep pace

I’m reminded of the saying “We don’t need to eat the rich. If we just eat one, the rest will fall into line”. Certainly something needs to change. Clearly it is only going to get worse, much worse, in the USA, but decent owners everywhere can have the insight to realise that (a) this is morally theft, (b) this is unsustainable, something will blow, and (c) you make as much and more when you pay your staff properly and unlock their productivity.

Blog posts for April 2025

  • Rebuilding the Organisation in Times of Crisis 
    Recently in the FaceBook Open Managers Club in Vietnamese, Cherry wrote a positive message in a time of crisis, which resonates with our Project Better 2025: The imposition of tariffs up to 46% by the US on goods from Vietnam is a clear signal of an increasingly volatile economic future. This not only significantly impacts businesses …
  • Releasing a new book in Vietnamese, free! 
    Dr Vu and Rob wrote a life-advice book in Vietnamese for our 70,000 followers …
  • Managers aren’t coaches 
    I struggle with the idea of manager-as-coach for several reasons. My issue is with the expectation that managers will have a coaching role. They can have behaviour like a coach of that helps their relationship with staff, but they shouldn’t be expected to coach. The relationship between manager and employee is asymmetrical, power-wise. The manager is going …
  • Orange Swans 
    The post was funny and profound. Putting aside the current context of the Mango Mussolini, we talk about Black Swans now in such a way that when one shows up, it’s NOT a surprise. “oh yeah, we expected something unexpected”. But actually, our preparations for the unexpected were still within the bounds of the conceivable. We need to …
  • TWO new games from Teal Unicorn 
    We have created not one but two new simulation games as part of our client training.
  • We can make a better 2025 and beyond by paying more 
    Any employer who tries to miminise what they pay you doesn’t deserve you. Good employers try to maximise pay. Some say “ Good business practice is to maximize the money for shareholders…. The system requires it.” No it doesn’t. Our clients make the pie bigger for everyone, including shareholders. It is not constructive top call for the overthrow …