Stefan Stern shakes the coconut tree in Wanted: more emotion and less rationality about strategy his Tuesday (Financial Times) column (full text requires registration, free trial available).
Stefan Stern highlights the fact that many companies deliver platitudes or come up with ‘new new things’ just to appease their investors.
He quotes Henri Mintzberg who laments that many execs lack the skill, knowledge or vision to come up with any ideas worth exploring. Instead they spout lame ideas and come up with lengthy mission statements.
Others practice what I would call management by remote control. Handing down decisions from far away places and failing to include people on the ground in the decision process and get them inspired, a recipe for failure.
Maybe they do not like the idea of debating the merits of their plans.
Personally I practice what my friend Steve Shapiro calls ‘meandering with a purpose‘.
Soundtrack for this could be Show Some Emotion by Joan Armatrading
Other Life at Work musings: About Toxic Coworkers also Leisure is Vital, Work and Play in Scandinavia and The Four day work week Challenge