It's time to reinvent management. You can help.

Humanize the language of business

“The noblest human ideals must become the noblest business ideals.”

The goals of management are usually described using words like “efficiency,” “advantage,” “value,” “superiority,” “focus,” and “differentiation.” Important as these objectives are, they lack the power to rouse human hearts. To create organizations that are almost human in their capacity to adapt, innovate, and engage, management pioneers must find ways to infuse even the most mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals and to develop an authentically homegrown vocabulary for communicating their ambitions. How you talk reflects how you think (and how your organization works). If you want to inspire people to extraordinary accomplishment, the language of honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty can no longer be relegated to the fringes of management discourse and action.

32 Stories
87 Hacks
4 Barriers

Humanize the language of business

“The noblest human ideals must become the noblest business ideals.”

The goals of management are usually described using words like “efficiency,” “advantage,” “value,” “superiority,” “focus,” and “differentiation.” Important as these objectives are, they lack the power to rouse human hearts. To create organizations that are almost human in their capacity to adapt, innovate, and engage, management pioneers must find ways to infuse even the most mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals and to develop an authentically homegrown vocabulary for communicating their ambitions. How you talk reflects how you think (and how your organization works). If you want to inspire people to extraordinary accomplishment, the language of honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty can no longer be relegated to the fringes of management discourse and action.

Filter By:
If you were to ask 10 people at random on your team or in your department, would they be able to tell you what your company's strategic goals are?
 In 2009, Citrix CEO Mark Templeton issued a challenge: Make Citrix a leader of design excellence by transforming the traditional engineering-driven company into one whose very DNA is built on th
Story by Catherine Courage on July 14, 2013
Hack the way we start projects. Be yourself, be human, ask powerful questions and benefit from interdisciplinary wisdom.
Hack by Frank Habermann on April 22, 2016
 Look, we have to find lots of ways to help our organizations  -- sometimes one person or one team at a time -- move toward the future.
Hack by Dan Oestreich on September 21, 2010
Management innovation is available  from the world of organizational development, as it's principles and dynamics are closely aligned to Hamel’s suggestion that “
Hack by Jon Husband on November 29, 2010
As the proportion of Millennials in the workforce increase, management is going to have to adapt to the demands of this unique cohort.
Hack by Stephen Remedios on November 2, 2011

Pages