Perspectives
The Essence of Leadership
I've been experimenting with infographics so for something different on a Friday, I attempted to boil leadership down to its simplest form and put it in an infographic. In actual fact, leadership is very simple. It's about meeting the needs of your followers. That's...
James Dyson – Problem Identification
James Dyson hit number 255 on Forbes list of billionaires with a net worth of $4.2 billion because he is good at problem identification. He discovered the problem that all vacuum cleaners had by using his Hoover Junior vacuum cleaner which became clogged quickly and...
Problem Identification
One of the first steps in solving a problem is identifying the issues and if you can, the root cause. I've watched a bit of the presidential debates on TV and thought it would be interesting to see what Obama and Romney think the root causes are for America's economic...
Participative Leadership
Finally, following the last post in a series of four, we're looking Participative Leadership, the third type of leadership studied by Kurt Lewin in 1939. This study of schoolchildren assigned to complete an arts and craft project, worked under three different types of...
Delegative Leadership
Following up on yesterday's post on Authoritarian Leadership, we continue on Kurt Lewin's study of leadership to look at Delegative Leadership, sometimes known as Laissez-Faire Leadership. The second group of children in his study of leadership worked under a...
Authoritarian Leadership
Yesterday's post looked at some of the implications of Kurt Lewin's psychological research. Another study he did in 1939 set out to identify different styles of leadership. To look at different styles he studied a group of schoolchildren. The kids were broken up into...
Kurt Lewin on Behaviour
Kurt Lewin, who died in 1947, was one of the pioneers of social, organizational and applied psychology. He was one of the first people to study group dynamics and organizational development. What is most interesting about his work is his study of leadership. If you've...
Using SWOT to Develop Strategy
Developing a strategy for a business is very simple when you use SWOT and combine it with the concepts of Quality, Cost and Speed. The first step is to figure out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for each of the three dimensions of Quality, Cost...
John Maeda on Technology, Design, Art, and Leadership
I watched a great TED Talk today that covers a wide range of interconnected fields in technology, design, art, and leadership. Very inspiring. Make sure you watch to the end as he uses art to display a new way of looking at an organizational chart.