[or: A “True Leader’s” Troublesome New Year Resolution] At the end of yet another eventful year, many of us will be pondering how to lead ourselves and others during the coming months. Sadly, even with the best of intentions and catalysed by earnest and solemn New Year’s resolutions, “becoming a better leader” is no easy task… Leadership TRAIT…

The Urgent Case for A Global Leadership Iconoclasm By Otti Vogt (Part of a reflection on System Psychodynamics for INSEAD) Are you a good leader? In case you are emphatically nodding, how would you know? Regrettably, it has become increasingly difficult to discern what “good Leadership” actually means. Searching Google…

An opinionated mini-series in five [loosely connected] parts by Otti Vogt and Antoinette Weibel In the beginning organisational purpose was just a word, synonymous with ‘mission’ or ‘goal’. And few took note. Then, suddenly, it transmuted into a signal of enlightenment, of consciousness, of virtue. Of growing up. …

I know that look. That I-hear-what-you-say-but-you-guys-in-the-engine-room-will-never-really-understand-it look. Personally, I have been there lots of times. I even once had someone in the background asking, not very inconspicuously: “Isn’t this a Sales event? Who invited Operations?” Of course, with the advent of Agile working and cross-functional teams, we have moved on…

Hip Hip, Hybrid!! Here we are again, back to the seasonal hype about “hybrid” working. Whilst some companies proudly market themselves as WFH-only, and others suffer from ritual outrage when commanding “everybody back to the office”, most claim with studied conviction that some middle way must be the path to…

Aristotle allegedly suggested that making money of money is the profession of parasites. That might be too dramatic — and I am speaking as a banker — but let us agree that much of banking is a rightfully regulated public service. Therefore, banks must never be single-minded profiteers, but always…

(1) KNOWLEDGE = POWER. But what if… (2) KNOWLEDGE = Fn(Self)? Then it would follow that: (3) Knowledge = Power => ONLY IF: Fn(Self) == Power In other words, knowledge becomes power only if we understand our identity in terms of the amount of power we wield. The only knowledge…

Or: The Necessary Sisterhood of Science and Philosophy IT AIN’T ROCKET SCIENCE… BUT STILL in almost every single conversation someone ignores the incommensurability between “is” and “should”. “We SHOULD be like nature…” “Like water…” “Like mushrooms…” “Like flocks of birds…” “Like beehives…” “Like ant colonies…” “Like forests…” “Like ancient people…” Or “We SHOULD be self-determined to fulfill psychological…

Isn’t it funny that sustainability is on everybody’s lips these days, but environmental and societal degradation are occurring at unprecedented levels? And ain’t it curious that the planet is burning, but few people in (solar-powered!) corporate or political headquarters are sweating? I will argue that this is no surprise: the…