The Onward March of Folly

Despite all of mankind’s technological progress, some patterns seem rooted in human behavior. One of these is the tendency to grab for short-term gains and ignore the longer-term consequences, even when those are almost entirely predictable.

This attitude has been illustrated this week by the announcement from the Ford Motor Company of still more lay-offs, plant closures, and buy-outs of workers’ contracts. For years, Ford’s cars have been becoming less popular… » Continue

September 18 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: burnout, business-ethics, business-fundamentalism, civilized-work, ethics, Management, mission, performance, priorities, Productivity, slow-leadership, strategy, stress, work, work-life | 3 comments»

Civilizing Corporate Culture

This week, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what counts as a “civilized” corporate and workplace culture. That’s because I’m deep into the editing process with my new book, Slow Leadership: How to Civilize Your Workplace, which will be published this Fall. The more I think about it, the more is seems to me that much of corporate America — much of the Western corporate world, if it comes to that — has taken a large step backwards in recent years in providing truly civilized working conditions. » Continue

June 12 2006 | By Adrian | Tagged: achievement, burnout, civilization, civilized-work, happiness, leadership, lifebalance, Lifehack, Lifestyle, Management, manager, organization, overwork, prioritization, time, work, work-life, work/life-balance | 3 comments»