Finding Freedom to Make a Difference
By Bernard Chanliau, Monday 10 May, 2010
White Paper by John Bazalgette and Colin Quine, Senior Organisational Analysts and Faculty members of the Institute's MA Programme in Organisational Analysis at The Grubb Institute, London. For further information visit www.grubb.org.uk. John will be co-hosting Unlock Cultural Gridlock Organisation Analysis workshop with Lorna McDowell, Managing Director of Xenergie in Dublin on 10th June (further information on workshop section of website)
The challenge
During the deepest world recession for generations, brought about by a loss of what has been called 'moral compass', every organisation in Ireland, as elsewhere, is now faced with questions about the wider validity of their overall purpose. At the same time there has been an overall loss of confidence in conventional thinking about business which seems itself to have contributed to the failure. As Kate Kellaway of the Financial Times says "The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit at source." She warns that 2010 will see a big rise of the 'cowboys, spivs and villains' like those who took advantage of the banking crisis in Britain in the 70s. These dangers pose a challenge of integrity and competence to those who are coaching and consulting to anxious and heavily burdened executives. To avoid falling into the trap of being the purveyors of ease and comfort to the harassed, they need to develop their competence in at least two new ways:
- to work with intellectual discipline
- whilst also trusting their 'hunches'
Download White Paper: Finding Freedom to Make a Difference 
