Andrew Day, Author at Metalogue | Organisation Design Consultants

Can you NOT communicate?

I recently re-read Paul Watzlawick’s classic book Pragmatics of Human Communication. For those of you who don’t know his work, many of his ideas have influenced paradoxical theories of change and family systems theory. In the book he outlines a number of principles of human communication. We can argue that much of what happens in organisations is communication. Underneath the labels such of ‘leadership’, ‘strategy’, ‘change’, ‘structure’, ‘culture’ are in fact patterns of communication.

The Unspoken Life of Executive Teams

We all have opinions about our leaders. Be it on what they are doing effectively, ineffectively, or not doing at all. Some of these views are based on first-hand experience and thought-through judgements whilst others reflect projections, prejudices, or unrealistic ideals.

Culture change – lessons from the field

Most of our clients are engaged in attempts to develop or change their culture in some way, shape or form. They tend however to tell us they find such initiatives to be tricky, demanding and, ultimately, disappointing. To understand why this is the case, we have been inquiring with leaders and OD practitioners into their experience of trying to change culture.

Facing or sleepwalking into the future: the existential challenges facing Executive Teams

Throughout 2021, we undertook an action research project into the ‘lived’ experience of executive teams. This revealed how they are increasingly confronted with existential challenges. These stretch beyond the realm of operational, performance or commercial pressures.

Learning from the mundane, everyday and taken-for-granted

One perspective that informs our consulting practice at Metalogue is cultural anthropology. We see value in trying to understand the symbolic meaning of behaviour, language, artefacts, rituals and ways of working. This lens often reveals new and different ways of making sense of what goes on in organisations.

Designing organisations and creating culture – two sides of the same coin

As part of our research into the practice of designing organisations, we spoke to leaders and practitioners about their experience and reflections on organisation design projects. Most of them acknowledged that, with the benefit of hindsight, they had not given sufficient attention to how changes would be brought to life.

From organisation design to designing

Throughout 2020, we conducted an action research project with our clients into the practice of designing organisations. One observation we made is that most organisations are in a constant process of redesigning themselves as they adapt to ever-increasing levels of uncertainty and complexity. Because of this, organisations are becoming more fluid and structures more transitory.

Isn’t it better to rip off the org design plaster (or Band-Aid) than take time and engage widely?

This was the question posed to us recently by a sceptical senior leader about to embark on an organisation design process for their organisation. On further questioning she intimated that in previous organisations she had always been told what her structure was going to be after a quick decision by the CEO, based on advice from the HR Director and external consultants.

Organisation Transformation Research: ‘Fateful Framings’

Over the past year, we have been researching the practice of transformation in organisations. A brief summary of our findings follows. If you would like to read our findings in more depth, then you can download a copy of the report by clicking on the link at the end of this blog.

Metaphors of Organisation Transformation

Organisation 'transformation' has become somewhat of a leitmotif. Increasingly, our clients are using the word 'transformation' when they talk about planned or ongoing change efforts. We’ve become curious about what they actually mean and are doing.

A ‘postmodern’ perspective on Organisation Development

“Words create worlds” Abraham Heschel. Generally speaking, I don’t think philosophy is considered to have much practical relevance to organisations. Certainly, when I look back on my early training as a psychologist little attention was paid to questions of philosophy.

Are you a high performing leadership team? ….. ten questions to ask yourselves!

In recent years, I've noticed that enquiries for team development and coaching, invariably start with the statement: “we (or they) need to be a high performing team.” On face value, this strikes me as a reasonable request.

Putting our insights to good use, our bite-sized blogs give leaders our latest thinking on strategy, organisation design, executive team development and culture change as well as other musings.