Blog de Joe Freeman

Companies can accidentally teach people that being "all in" on transformative efforts is risky and potentially career-limiting (CLM).  They do this because joining a transformation or reshaping puts those same people on the "most likely to get laid off" list when the company's senior leadership changes direction. This behavior flips the risk-reward decision process by rewarding those that keep their heads down and those that "wait out" any changes.  Passive resistance or inaction is more profitable than commitment. Transformation initiatives spin up when companies recognize the need to change. They organize around the transformation as a top priority. This continues until the next prioritization cycle with its associated reorganization. The previous priorities including the transformation are de-prioritized. This de-prioritizes skills learned to support the transformation. Companies ramp up to transform and then ramp down those teams punishing those t...

Large companies purchase smaller ones to enter new markets, buy IP or get an edge that they couldn't otherwise make happen.  It is crazy but then they often integrate  those acquisitions into themselves often killing the creative spark and culture that made that acquisition important, to begin with. Does anyone know of a company that succeeds with acquisitions without smothering the culture that they purchase?   ROLM and the pool metaphor that wasn't a metaphor IBM acquired ROLM in the mid-80s. ROLM was a market leader at that time and one of the companies that prided itself as a Great Place to Work (GPW). ROLM created a place with a completely different culture from that of IBM.  There was a story that IBM showed up to the first all-hands meeting with the employees and said  We are not here to drain the swimming pool. IBM then went on to do everything they could to make ROLM conform essentially draining the pool that didn't fit their model. IBM moved its p...

The office is a hostile environment for a lot of people especially if they don't totally fall into the majority behaviors, culture, appearance, or stereotypes. The Work From Home (WFH) shift, during the pandemic, made these people's lives better.  Post-pandemic management is calling for a Return to Office (RTO) to  foster corporate culture and accidental communication .  Return to Office  is sending people back to a place where their work is often less important than other factors more subjective factors.  Some communication is strongly negative and unwanted.  Executives and old line managers are pushing for  Return to Office (RTO).  They rightly call out the advantages of accidental communication and the higher bandwidth decision-making.  I suspect that we will find that the biggest advocates are older, lighter, and more male than those asking for more flexible working relationships. The people calling for RTO either don't understand the si...