Author Archives: crosbyod
Implementation – The Overlooked Root Cause
A recent group discussion entitled “Should Failure be Rewarded” inspired me to ponder botched implementation as a persistant yet overlooked root cause of failure in most organizations. Here’s my response, elaborated on for this blog: Insist on a thoughtful analysis of “failures.” Reward people … Continue reading
Posted in Change Management
Tagged change management, Implementation, Leadership, root cause
4 Comments
Organizational Culture
A colleague wrote: I quote from page 23 of the Chapter “No mere Ape’ in *Ramachandran VS (2010) The Tell-Tale Brain ? Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature, Random House India.* “….By hyper-developing the mirror-neuron system, evolution in fact turned … Continue reading
More Thoughts on Authority
A colleague wrote today on our list serve, prompting the following thoughts: Gil, I liked the thoughts you offered in your note below. Thanks for taking the time to share them. Your comment: “Because of human reactions to authority, it … Continue reading
Boss Stress – Or the 5 Characteristics of Chronically Anxious Systems
My posting from a nuclear power discusion group on Linked In: Kate brought up another critical point – “boss stress.” That’s actually one of the biggest variables in any human system. Edwin Friedman pointed out 5 behavioral characteristics of systems … Continue reading
Challenging Lewin, and the foundations of OD
The following is my response to a post by a colleague on the OD Network list serve. I hope you agree it was worth re-posting here. After mentioning a few places we converged, I wrote the following: I do think … Continue reading
Posted in Organization Development
Tagged Change, Force Field Analysis, Lewin, OD, Self-Organizing Systems
Leave a comment
Leadership is the “root cause”
I’m fresh back from a ten day journey through London, Krakow, Budapest and Bucharest. What I saw and heard in my business conversations convinces me more that I’m on the right track thinking about the systemic influence of leadership behavior. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Change, Leadership
Tagged Culture Change, Gil Crosby, Leadership, Nuclear safety culture
2 Comments
The Nuclear Industries Blind Spot (and they’re not the only ones)
I wrote this as part of a Linkedin Nulcear Safety Culture Group. In sum, the nuclear industry, and many outside that industry, while understanding some of the behaviors and processes necessary for healthy culture, don’t have a clear grasp of … Continue reading
Don’t Chase the Stray Cow – Lessons on Leadership and Human Systems (from my upcoming book “Leadership Can Be Learned”)
“That’s just like my cows.” I’ll never forget Norm, a down to earth engineer who had been dealing with and managing people for decades, speaking up during the retreat I was facilitating. I had just drawn a bell shaped curve … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Systems Thinking
Tagged Authority, Friedman, Gil Crosby, Group Dynamics, Leadership, Systems Thinking
Leave a comment
Managing the Wired Generation
I wrote this in response to my friend Mark Schaefer. He writes a pithy and practical marketing blogg which fouces on the us eof social media and has a large international following. In Mark’s last article, he posted a provocative question: … Continue reading
Resistance to Change
I think it’s helpful for leaders to get it that “resistance” is a wired response of the reptilian brain. The reptilian brain is constantly monitoring the environment for danger, and any change in the environment increases risk (from a pure … Continue reading
Crosby & Associates Leadership and Organization Development Blog 