Learning in Conferences

The true value of a conference lies in its effects on participants. Conferences are to generate and share knowledge that impacts behavior and links to results: this will not happen if the state-of-the-art of conference evaluation remains immature and event planners do not shine a light on the conditions for learning outcomes. (No. 110 | December 2011)

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Learning Histories

How can we gauge the successes and failures of collective learning? How can the rest of the organization benefit from the experience? Learning histories surface the thinking, experiments, and arguments of actors who engaged in organizational change. (No. 109 | November 2011)

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Conflict in Organizations

Complex adaptive systems are the source of much intra-organizational conflict that will not be managed, let alone resolved. To foster learning, adaptation, and evolution in the workplace, organizations should capitalize on its functions and dysfunctions with mindfulness, improvisation, and reconfiguration. (No. 108 | October 2011)

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Political Economy Analysis for Development Effectiveness

Political economy embraces the complex political nature of decision making to investigate how power and authority affect economic choices in a society. Political economy analysis offers no quick fixes but leads to smarter engagement. (No. 107 | September 2011)

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A Primer on Intellectual Capital

Intellectual capital has become the one indispensable asset of organizations. Managing its human, relational, and structural components is of the essence of modern business. (No. 106 | August 2011)

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On Second Thought

Remembering times past stimulates the mind and helps give perspective and a sense of who we are. Social reminiscence is a gain in performance without practice. (No. 105 | August 2011)

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Surveying Communities of Practice

Surveys are used to find promising opportunities for improvement; identify, create a consensus about, and act on issues to be addressed; record a baseline from which progress can be measured; motivate change efforts; and provide two-way communication between stakeholders. Healthy communities of practice leverage survey instruments to mature into influence structures that demand or are asked to assume influential roles in their host organizations. (No. 104 | July 2011)

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Moral Courage in Organizations

Moral courage is the strength to use ethical principles to do what one believes is right even though the result may not be to everyone's liking or could occasion personal loss. In organizations, some of the hardest decisions have ethical stakes: it is everyday moral courage that sets an organization and its members apart. (No. 103 | June 2011)

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Managing Corporate Reputation

Newly minted approaches to corporate reputation are already obsolete. Beyond gaining control of issues, crisis, and corporate social responsibility, organizations need to reconceptualize and manage reputation in knowledge-based economies. (No. 102 | May 2011)

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Delegating in the Workplace

The act of delegating calls for and rests on trust. In organizations, delegation had better be understood as a web of tacit governance arrangements across quasi-boundaries rather than the execution of tasks with definable boundaries. (No. 101 | April 2011)

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The Travails of Micromanagement

Micromanagement is mismanagement. What is it that one should decide in the higher echelons of an organization that, given the same data and information, personnel in the lower echelons might not run just as well? (No. 100 | March 2011)

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Critical Thinking

The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our thoughts. Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. Excellence in thought can be cultivated and fertilized with creativity. (No. 99 | February 2011)

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Primer on Corporate Governance

Good corporate governance helps an organization achieve its objectives; poor corporate governance can speed its decline or demise. Never before has the glare of the spotlight focused so much on boards of directors. Corporate governance has emerged from obscurity and become a mainstream topic. (No. 98 | January 2011)

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