Credit on Hold: ‘Your call is important to us’ and other lies about doing business in today’s world. By Samantha Carney London MARCH 30, 2010 I have been on hold forever when they disconnect me. … Continue reading On the Nightmarish Service in UK
Category: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Wilhelm Röpke on Why Do We Work
A Humane Economist on the Meaning of Work A possibly apocryphal story highlights the key idea of this 20th century German-Swiss economist. Röpke was walking along a road with a famous colleague Ludwig von Mises. Walking … Continue reading Wilhelm Röpke on Why Do We Work
On Lateness: True Causes and Right Solutions
By Isaac I’m often late. Fortunately, I have no boss and my students—from whom I often rob 5 minutes of lecture time (although I try to make up for it with class-relevant jokes) —can’t punish … Continue reading On Lateness: True Causes and Right Solutions
How managing stifles initiative and prevents joy
Psychologists on the impossibility of management—even for NINA puzzles The University of Rochester psychologists Edward Deci, Richard Ryan, and their associates carried, perhaps, the most ambitious contemporary theoretical and empirical research on motivation. They argue … Continue reading How managing stifles initiative and prevents joy
Incentive plans: Addictive for people and ruinous for companies
Taleb and Whitney of why incentives are just another sick game A big bank announced its annual profits—not very big this year—with a whole third of those going as bonuses for traders. Traders ususally make … Continue reading Incentive plans: Addictive for people and ruinous for companies
McGregor and Whitney on “making the numbers”
The exciting game of “making the numbers.” In Freedom, Inc. we wrote: “Because you get what you measure, your measurement becomes the performance. And before long, rather than boosting your firm to ever-faster growth and … Continue reading McGregor and Whitney on “making the numbers”
Deming on invisible costs and other figures
Running a company on visible figures alone We have written in Freedom, Inc. on the invisible costs of traditional companies and illustrated it through the costs of the workplace stress. Of course, there are others … Continue reading Deming on invisible costs and other figures
On Animals and Pets in the Workplace
Why animals and pets are welcome in the workplace (and we didn’t even know it) We have just “discovered” this amazing book written in 1993. Its author, John O. Whitney, spent most of his career … Continue reading On Animals and Pets in the Workplace
Neuroscience shows threats bad and freedom good
Managing with the Brain in Mind David Rock AUTUMN 2009, ISSUE 56 …Although a job is often regarded as a purely economic transaction, in which people exchange their labor for financial compensation, the brain experiences … Continue reading Neuroscience shows threats bad and freedom good
On the focus on money
Mitch Albom “People are only mean when they’re threatened and that’s what our culture does… And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is … Continue reading On the focus on money