There are species of organizations just as there are species of animals. Don’t mix them up. A bear is not a beaver. Hospitals are not factories; advertising agencies are not fast food companies. #organization #structure #management mintzberg.org//blog/organiza…

Love at first sight” has to be, if not the most common form of serendipity, certainly the most venerated. We just love to glorify such things. For some people, it can be love at almost any sight. mintzberg.org/blog/serendipi…

There is plenty of business education, but hardly any management education. While a manager cannot be created in a classroom, people who practice management can benefit enormously by reflecting on their own experience and sharing insights with each other. mintzberg.org/blog/managemen…

A young, enthusiastic #MBA student was asked to carry out a survey of an organization with which he was not normally familiar and submit recommendations as to how its efficiency could be increased. #leadership #management mintzberg.org/blog/orchestra

Wherever a manager experiences a chance encounter,,serendipity can rear its playful head. Managers should, therefore, not only expect unexpected encounters, but predispose themselves to finding them, and exploiting them. mintzberg.org/blog/serendipi…

Perhaps nothing has broken the spirit of our professional services, especially in schools and healthcare, more than the imposition of technocratic fixes. #ThinkingOnThursday #quote

It is remarkable how many people line up either for or against #globalization and then dismiss the other side. Who’s right? #rebalancing mintzberg.org/blog/i-am-for-…

Managing does not change, not fundamentally. It is a practice, rooted in art and craft, not a science or a profession, dependent on analysis.

Concerning serendipity, is it the manner of meeting that matters? Maybe what really matters is the memory of the moment. And not just in love: in corporate cultures too. mintzberg.org/blog/serendipi…

We make a great fuss about leadership these days, but #communityship is more important. Successful leaders create, enhance, and support a sense of community in their organization, and that requires hands-on #management. #rebalancing mintzberg.org/blog/networks-…

There are organization designers who know what they don’t know, and so allow the people to walk the park, so to speak. As the walkers keep walking, the pathways keep changing. mintzberg.org/blog/design-do…

In place of the angry, regressive populism that would take us backward, to some other imbalance, let’s promote a constructive, progressive populism that can take us forward, to balance. mintzberg.org/blog/discoveri…

I propose an end to the belief that leadership is separate from management, and superior to it. This is damaging management all right, but leadership more so. mintzberg.org/blog/to-lead

Say organization and we see #leadership. That’s why those charts are so ubiquitous. They show us who sits on top of whom, but not who talks with whom, when, and about what. Why are we so fixated on formal authority? #communityship mintzberg.org/blog/community…

Wait, that’s not it. It’s supposed to be: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” This is sheer nonsense. If you believe it, get out of management before you do more harm. Or else read on. #rebalancing #management #leadership mintzberg.org/blog/measure-i…

The evidence from major constructive social change suggests that reformation begins on the ground, with community movements that spread—“go viral”—eventually to drive governments to do what is necessary and businesses to do what is responsible. mintzberg.org/blog/center-no…

William Butler Yeats wrote famously that “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…” Accordingly, opinion writers, left and right, have been writing about the center holding or not. What center? Mostly it’s been folding, not holding. mintzberg.org/blog/center-no…

Maybe we need design doing more than design thinking. #ThinkingOnThursday #quote

Who can blame beleaguered Americans for asking why, as their country and its wealthiest citizens gets richer, they get poorer? mintzberg.org/blog/reflectin…

Clearly we need administrative engineering to keep the lid on the costs of health care. But that does not mean that hospitals need to be seen as “focused factories”, doctors as “industry players”, and patients as “customers” and "consumers.” mintzberg.org//blog/reframin…