by Mark Harling | Sep 9, 2024 | Blog
The Peter Principle is a well-known principle which states that people are promoted up to their level of incompetence. It was formulated by Dr Laurence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, and in my 20 years of continuous...
by Mark Harling | Aug 22, 2024 | Blog
A few weeks ago, a company director confided: “I’m losing business opportunities by turning down customers from other countries because I don’t have enough capacity to fulfil their orders. But what can I do?” 🤔 I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to visit...
by Mark Harling | Aug 16, 2024 | Blog
I have previously written an article on polarity management. As a quick reminder, a polarity is a pair of interdependent, opposing yet complementary values, forces or perspectives that must be managed simultaneously for sustainable success. Unlike problems, which can...
by Mark Harling | Jul 16, 2024 | Blog
Holiday season is here, and you may feel like you need a rest after a long year of work. You’re looking forward to relaxing and doing nothing. At the same time, you now have the time to complete all the tasks that you haven’t done during the year: that painting job...
by Mark Harling | Jun 12, 2024 | Blog
One of the most profound transformations I was involved with started with the vision of one man. He was an inspiring leader, very top down and had had a calling. He wanted to radically change the structure and ways of working of his organisation by flattening the...
by Mark Harling | Jun 4, 2024 | Blog
I have consulted for a family run business. They were experiencing a crisis within the management team. Had this been a traditional company, the solution was rather evident: one person was disrupting the operations and needed to go. But that person being a close...
by Mark Harling | May 30, 2024 | Blog
Creativity isn’t the world of Care Bears, it’s a world of resources. That’s what I thought to myself the other day in Italy, during CREA conference, after numerous enriching conversations with consultants and facilitators from all over the world....
by Mark Harling | May 22, 2024 | Blog
I recently ran a Lego® workshop where the participants were wearing slippers. They were wide awake, but they were simply already at the workshop, comfortably seated in their living room. For reasons of confidentiality, we decided to hold the workshop in the...
by Mark Harling | May 16, 2024 | Blog
Let’s play a little guessing game. In South Africa, there are several ways of crossing a junction, depending on the context: The classic, familiar context: all the lights work and you follow the traffic lights 🚥 The dangerous context: some of the traffic lights work,...
by Mark Harling | May 9, 2024 | Blog
Are we born with an affinity for management or is it a learnt skill set? In my years of practice , I’ve noticed how common it is for good technicians and non-managers be promoted within a company to take on a management role. Employees can find themselves in...
