‘We live in a world of organizations - and we do not understand them’

This is one of the statements Henry Mintzberg, one of the leading thinkers in the field of Management, made when I interviewed him for my Leadership 2.0 Podcast about his latest book ‘Understanding Organizations…Finally'.

During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

1. The importance for organizations to get their structure ‘right’
2. How Henry’s thinking about organizations has evolved in the last 40 years, and what some of the changes and updates he made in this book as a result
3. Henry’s statement that ‘Every (organization) form contains the seeds of its own destruction.’
4. ‘Emergent structures’ as an alternative to large scale organization restructuring initiatives
5. The fit between the personality of a leader and the structure of the organization
6. The link between the structures of Apple and Tesla, and the personalities of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. What, if anything, could ‘established’ organizations learn from this?
7. The complimentary role of conflict and culture in organizations
8. The relationship between structure and culture in organizations
9. Where the gap between the formulators and implementers of corporate strategies stems from, and how this can be closed
10. The interest in structuring organizations in the academic and the business world

About Henry Mintzberg

Henry Mintzberg is the Cleghorn professor of management studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University in Montreal. He was visiting professor at INSEAD, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the London Business School. He has been engaged as a consultant to a number of organizations, and was president of the Strategic Management Society from 1988 to 1991.

He is the author of 21 books, including ‘The Nature of Managerial Work’, ‘Managers not MBAs’, ‘Simply Managing’, ‘Rebalancing Society, Managing the Myths of Health Care’, and ‘Understanding Organizations...Finally!’ (2023). He also wrote 184 articles, numerous commentaries and produced videos.

He publishes a regular TWOG (TWeet 2 blOG), on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Finally Henry co-founded, and remains active, in the International Masters Program for Managers and the International Masters for Health Leadership, as well as the venture CoachingOurselves.com.

Resources

Website Henry Mintzberg: https://mintzberg.org/
Twitter Account Henry Mintzberg: @mintzberg141
International Masters Program for Managers: impm.org
International Masters for Health Leadership: mcgill.ca/imhl

In this episode, I am interviewing Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith of the Surrey Business School about the role of intuition in decision-making processes.

During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

1 What intuition is and what it is not
2 The two types of intuition
3 Adopting an Ambidextrous Mindset
4 How to take important decisions in business
5 Carl Jung and Intuition
6 Why the intuitive mind is a slow learner
7 Values and ethics in decision-making processes
8 Final Thoughts - AI and intuition

Eugene Sadler Smith is a Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Surrey Business School. His research interests include hubris (in leadership, business, and politics) and intuition (in decision-making and creativity).

He published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and his research has featured on BBC Radio 4, BBC Local Radio, Sky TV, The Insight Channel, The Times, The Guardian, and others.

Eugene worked on research and executive education projects with, amongst others, Tesco, Mind Gym, ICSA, CIPD, Met Police, Surrey Police, Welsh Government, Forbes, Home Office and the Scottish Government.

He has written a number of books: Learning and Development for Managers (Blackwell, 2006); Inside Intuition (Routledge, 2008); The Intuitive Mind (John Wiley and Sons, 2010, translated into Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian); Hubristic Leadership (with a Foreword by Lord David Owen, SAGE, 2018); Human Resource Development: From Theory into Practice (SAGE, 2022), and ‘Intuition in Business’ (Oxford University Press in 2023).

In the next coming months two new books by his hand will be published ‘The Hubris Hazard, and how to avoid it’ (Routledge), and ‘Trust your gut: Go with your intuition and make better choices’ (Pearson Academic).

The E-Mail address of Eugene Sadler-Smith is: e.sadler-smith@surrey.ac.uk

His website dedicated to the topic of Hubris is: www.thehubrishub.com

Scenario thinking enables organizations to establish possible visions of the future in the form of scenarios. This enables decision-makers to think through the different ways in which the environment of their institutions could evolve in the future, based on different sets of assumptions.
One of the companies that is best known for its scenario-thinking activity is Shell. For decades, Shell’s scenarios have supported the decision-making of Shell leaders, academics, governments, and businesses.

Jeremy Bentham led this activity in Shell between 2006 and his retirement in 2022 as Shell Scenarios & strategy Leader and VP Global Business Environment.
In this episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I am interviewing Jeremy Bentham about scenario thinking and leadership.

During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

1 What scenario thinking is and what is it not
2 Why organizations should invest in scenario thinking
3 The development of scenario thinking in the past decades
4 The reason for Shell to start sharing (parts of) its scenarios with external stakeholders
5 The importance of engagement
6 Why and how scenario thinking could lead to wiser decisions
7 Strategic character
8 The possible role of scenario thinking in addressing crises our society faces
9 The Dodo club (recently established by Jeremy)
10 Final thoughts on the topic of scenario thinking

About Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham has a Degree in Physics from the University of Oxford and a Master's Degree in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

From 1980 - 2022 he worked for Shell in various roles and functions, including as Chief Executive for Shell Hydrogen, and later as Shell Scenarios & strategy Leader and VP Global Business Environment, in charge of developing forward-looking scenarios to support strategic thinking and direction-setting.

Currently, Jeremy is Co-Chair (scenarios) & Senior Advisor for the World Energy Council, as well as being involved in several other organizations in the climate and sustainable development space, including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Illuminem, Pathfinder International, and the Mission Possible Partnership.

Additionally, he is a Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

His interests include theater production, cinema, and art history.

The Dodo Club

Recently, Jeremy started a regular newsletter and vehicle for discussion and community building called 'the Dodo club. The purpose of this club is to help people and organizations make wiser decisions in the face of the radical uncertainties they are facing, including when grappling with issues of decarbonisation and energy transitions.

You can find this club, and sign up for the Newsletter at [https://thedodoclub.beehiiv.com/]

The E-Mail address of Jeremy Bentham is: jbentham@live.com

Additional resources:

Jeremy Bentham: Decarbonisation Scenarios (youtube.com)

Jeremy Bentham: The energy transition (post Illuminem)

40 Years of Shell Scenarios

Scenarios: An explorers guide