De-politicize decision-making

“We have to find a way of separating critical decisions from personal ‘wins’ and ‘losses.’”

The quality of top-level decision making is often compromised by executive hubris, unstated biases, and incomplete data. Moreover, the number of variables that must be factored into key decisions keeps growing. In deciding to spend millions of dollars to enter a new market or back a new technology, senior leaders seldom seek the advice of rank-and-file employees. However, those on the ground are often best placed to evaluate the issues that will make or break a new strategy. Companies need new decision-making processes that capture a variety of views, exploit the organization’s collective wisdom, and minimize position-related biases.

506 Hacks
145 Stories
28 Barriers

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Discovering hidden influencers that make and break project success

A provocative research finding is that 75-90% of all large organizational projects fail to meet their original objectives, (Patterson et al. (2006)). The same research suggests human practices... Read more

Hack by Michael Lennon on January 11, 2012 16 Comments

Chief Devil’s Advocate – company ombudsman of business interest

Outside the world of academics popular culture splendidly captured the corporate imperative with the clarion call of “Show me the money!” That demand is more incessant today with an ever... Read more

Hack by János Pál NÉMETH on December 15, 2011 0 Comments

Making Large-Scale Deliberations Better, Online: The Deliberatorium

The Deliberatorium is a software tool designed to help organizations better harvest the knowledge and incorporate the perspectives of their members to identify solutions for complex problems,... Read more

Hack by Mark Klein on September 3, 2011 28 Comments

Wisdom of Crowds to Empower Beyond Budgeting

The idea of our hack wants to challenge the highly unconscious, but nothing less dominant dogma of heroic leadership, epitomizing the command and control management model. Our offered solution... Read more

Hack by Michael Gebauer on October 11, 2011 33 Comments

Culture Eats Strategy

Understanding a company’s culture is a key component that leaders may ignore. When I took on a new role, an updated strategy was cited as top priority. What the team needed was a culture boost. I... Read more

Story by Jonathan Becher on January 29, 2012 25 Comments

A 21st Century Bill of Rights: Harness Social Media to Return Power to Citizens

American national government can more effectively serve the public by systematically opening its activities via social media. Politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups increasingly use social... Read more

Hack by James Strock on July 21, 2011 24 Comments

Boeing's Workplace Innovation Lab - Engaging 'Generation Y' as a powerful catalyst for productivity and change

Boeing has piloted a bottom-up approach to innovation in leadership, productivity and new ways of working. The Workplace Innovation Lab pairs 'Gen Y' employees with their manager and provides 90 days... Read more

Story by Jonathan Winter on September 20, 2011 2 Comments

Passion Meets Action and Resources to Create

Narconia is an online community that seeks to connect creative individuals with other skilled people and resources. Through us, a creator of a project can reward passionate contributors with... Read more

Hack by Robert Roufail on September 4, 2011 4 Comments

Player mindset for everybody: Working out at the empowerment gym

You don’t have to wait for your leaders to self-actualize to increase trust and reduce fear. At TANDBERG, people hit the empowerment gym for a regular workout of the “Player” muscle. When “Player” is... Read more

Story by Erika Ilves on October 5, 2010 16 Comments

Should we pay more money to bureaucracy to make it less appealing?

People used it in one way or another, from the gold rush to false bourgeois, from posh style to politics. Whether by force or law, the real name of the game in human attending to avoid responsibility... Read more

Hack by Alexandru Bodislav on February 1, 2012 0 Comments

Humanizing the organization

This is the story of an OD consulting firm founded in the Middle East. The Middle East is one of the most difficult places to preach a new way for managing organizations and leading them to grow.... Read more

Story by Marwa Farouq on October 12, 2010 10 Comments

Combating disbelief and indifference in surfacing a basic innovation that harnesses technology to drive success

Fundamental infrastructure innovations must overcome a steeper than normal entry barrier. The market-place considers them an avoidable adventure regardless of need. Early adopters are rare. The... Read more

Story by Raj Kumar on November 12, 2010 11 Comments