Maintaining bureaucracy? "Leaders say they want transformation, engagement, innovation, creativity and agility ... but their actions and the environments they create say otherwise: what they actually value are the status quo, sameness, safety, certainty, busyness and consensus." Sonja Blignaut Max Weber (1864 - 1920) developed the theory of bureaucracy. He described an ideal bureaucracy as containing six central elements: 1. A clearly defined division of labour and authority 2. Hierarchical structures and offices 3. Written guidelines prescribing performance criteria 4. Recruitment to offices based on specialisation and expertise 5. Office holding as a career or vocation 6. Duties and authority attached to positions, no persons Sound familiar? The challenges for businesses and workers are now to complex to be addressed by the old bureaucracy model. The new leadership formula for success in the digital era means mastering context, communication and enro

"The frogs that fell into the well now think that's the universe" Jim Harrison I was grateful to spend the day at a brilliantly organised event for L&D leaders in London last week. This annual gathering reinforced some well-worn themes for this audience: The "future of work" is already here for many organisations - just unevenly distributed A "seat at the table" always was (and still is) the wrong goal for 'L&D' "Learning" and "performance" are two completely different things Change is slow... These themes reflect much of my own work to support L&D leaders facing new challenges and shifting priorities, which I'd summarise as follows: The role, priority and focus of workplace learning still needs to shift from the industrial mindset of producing standardised workers to fit specific roles. This change is urgent because the 'bureaucracy model' no longer guarantees businesses stability and