Dave Snowden on the futility of most culture change

Dave Snowden is a wise old owl. He talks in his latest blog post about the repetitive insanity of company shakeups. Instead of the organisation reflecting the culture, it wants the people to adapt to an annual change of culture. He's tired of hearing this at conferences:

(i) re-organise, (ii) change the culture and (iii) restructure and align processes

He calls this ritual 'The Masochism Tango', after Tom Lehrer's song.

Donkey's years ago - when he was at IBM - he explained to me the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge. An eye opener, for which I was immensely grateful. Some years later, in 2004, I found myself interviewing him for an article on Knowledge Management, in case you're interested.

Anyway, if you don't subscribe to his blog, take a look. You might find it very much to your taste.

Comments

[Adriana]

This is a brilliant find! Thanks for the pointer.

[David Tebbutt]

You're welcome.