By Ed Hoffman “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” —Charlie Parker In the early 1980s, I was involved in conducting a study to determine the effectiveness of a new initiative promoting a more participative organization, interviewing employees and managers.
By Ed Hoffman Throughout the past year, I have seen organizations, leaders, and managers wrestle with challenges brought on by economic, political, technological, and organizational change.
By Ed Hoffman Sometimes organizational “support” kills good new ideas. Entrenched ways of doing things and bureaucratic caution can and do discourage innovation in organizations, but even organizational support for new ideas can be a mixed blessing.
By Ed Hoffman Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The wisest mind has something yet to learn. —George Santayana During the last weeks of playing baritone horn in my high-school band, I started wondering how the band would be able to continue. I looked at Marco, who […]
By Ed Hoffman What do we mean when we talk about change management? Change is an inevitable part of the life of an organization. Regardless of why it happens, it is always difficult and painful for many people. One metaphor that’s helpful for understanding change in an organizational context comes from evolutionary biology.
By Ed Hoffman Last spring I had the opportunity to visit three project-based organizations in the Piedmont region of Italy.
By Ed Hoffman Space exploration has always been international. NASA’s first international mission dates back nearly fifty years, and the agency has had more than three thousand agreements with over one hundred countries in its history.
By Ed Hoffman The shuttle has been the dominant image of an entire generation of human spaceflight, shaping NASA’s missions, organization, and self-image for nearly thirty years.
By Ed Hoffman The traditional tools of project management do not help leaders with one of their most critical jobs: defining reality.
