Any company that understands how to motivate its people better has competitive advantage. This video of a talk at the RSA explains how money is a poor motivator for anytying but the most mundane, mechanical tasks. For ‘knowledge worker’ tasks what matters are autonomy, mastery, and a sense of contribution, a sense of purpose.
Category archives: Uncategorized
Regeneration of capitalism is a work in progress
Nicholas Gilani, co-head of the Investment Banking Group at the National Bank of Abu has a letter in today’s FT. He writes, “Sir, …I would like to say that the protesters in New York, Chicago, London and other places should not be criticised for incoherence in voicing their grievances about capitalism.
Three related items
This is less a newsfeed item and more a blog post, connecting up some ideas to do with changing our thinking about. First, China has been approached to help with the eurozone crisis. A member of China’s central bank monetary policy committee, a Professor Li, said: “It is in China’s … interest to help Europe because they …
Double loop learning
If there is one thing that is critical to business it is change. Every product or service sold helps a customer to create change. Whether it’s a hedge trimmer that helps them to change from a messy garder to a tidy one; a sandwich that changes them from feeling hungry to feeling full; a haircut …
Limited liability is a ‘faultline’ in more than just banking governance
John Plender writes a piece in today’s FT on a recent speech by Andrew Haldane, executive director for financial stability of the Bank of England. He describes how “bank equity is treated as a call option on bank assets by investors, because the upside payoffs are unlimited while downside risks are capped by limited liability. …
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Rethinking our brains
For a long time it has been understood that the left half of our brain does ‘reason’ and the right half does ’emotion’; or that language and visual imagery each reside only in one hemisphere. In fact, it turns out that this is not correct. Both halves carry out both functions, but in different ways. …
“Germany will never leave the Eurozone”
And neither will Greece. An interesting perspective in this article by Ian Bremner. A standalone German currency would be far stronger than the euro. If Germany were outside the eurozone its European neighbours (its largest export market) would find it increasingly difficult to buy those exports, and Germany would face a similar problem to that …
FSA blocks ‘liquidity swaps’
The FSA has blocked an undisclosed number of trades of undisclosed assets between banks and insurers. The banks/insurers say these would help their liquidity, by lending/borrowing a relatively easy to trade portfolio of gilts or bonds, secured against a portfolio of other less-liquid assets. The FSA says the resulting cross-holdings would make the financial system more …
GE’s growth values
General Electric is one of the most respected companies in the world, and ex-GE managers are currently CEOs of ABB, Honeywell and Boeing. Its most important production line? The one that produces its leaders. GE has spent two years rethinking what (and how) it teaches future GE leaders, and has just relaunched its five ‘growth values’. …
Positive thinking or Realistic thinking?
An interesting ten minute talk from the RSA, ranging from whether positive thinking is enough to get you a new job, to why the people who predicted the sub-prime mortgage problem (and problems in Iraq) weren’t listened to, and the alternatives to gloom and negativity. Realism: trying to figure out what is actually happening in …