Development aid is not about punishing people. Not our own people, not our beneficiaries. It should never be about guilt, or about a debt owed. It should be about using our intelligence, our creativity, to make the world more inclusive. It should never be about the typical Catholic rap of: "you should feel bad because … Continue reading Quick thoughts on development aid
Some ideas on democratic administrations (updated)
There is a old "new" management wave roaring through the organisational straights again, and it is lapping up on the shores of public administrations. I'm talking about the workplace democracy model that was made famous by the success of Brazil based Semco in the 1990's. The general idea is that reducing management in favor of … Continue reading Some ideas on democratic administrations (updated)
Marketeers all the way
Turtles all the way There's this story I must have read in one of Terry Pratchett's wonderful diskworld novels. In a conference open to the public, a scientist is approached by an older lady. She contests the round world hypothesis and points out that the world is a disk, carried on four elephants, who stand … Continue reading Marketeers all the way
The death of information asymmetry
Alcoholism and opium As I understand from my sparse reading of the history of the beginning of the last century - the history of the industrial revolution - many people were left at a loss what to do with their lives once the industrialisation took hold. This led to for example a high degree of … Continue reading The death of information asymmetry
Kourosh writes again
The approaches ... There is GTD, and 7 habits, and scrum, and many more approaches, for lack of a better word, which aim to help us with our personal productivity. I for one started with 7 habits and graduated to a personal adaptation of GTD with some agile put in there to ensure I actually … Continue reading Kourosh writes again
A lean government needs strategic internal audit
In the short period of 1999 to 2003, the Belgian federal government was making some real progress, at least conceptually, in improving its functioning. The Copernicus reform, which eventually failed, had some essential ideas on how to turn the Belgian federal public sector into a (reasonably) lean organisation. Come the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and we … Continue reading A lean government needs strategic internal audit
My bad time travel habits
Two books I've read in recent months made me acutely aware of my bad time travel habits. I know, it may come as a shock I can travel through time. It most certainly surprised me. You may believe it's a gift, but it is really more of a curse. Now, before we go any further, … Continue reading My bad time travel habits
Are you a contract killer or a primary care physician?
The contract killer I've known quite a few internal auditors who took pride in the number of people they managed to take out as a consequence of their audit reports. The arguments? Most often they argued the people had failed to do what they were told to do by the procedures. Or they considered the … Continue reading Are you a contract killer or a primary care physician?
Death of The Manager
Examining my dictionary What is a manager? My dictionary states that a manager is: "a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff" But there is an implicit assumption here, which is the following: that an organization or a group of staff need managing. And that's what it used to be. … Continue reading Death of The Manager
Context reporting
Another link to an absolutely worthwhile article. Michael Lopp offers an excellent suggestion in the following article on context reporting. He suggests: "A context report documents the reason why (and to a lesser extent how) you’re completing these actions and I suspect this information is far more useful to everyone involved." I invite you to … Continue reading Context reporting
Exploring The Black Box 