Beyond the measurable by Margaret Heffernan
Of this book, I only found a Dutch version.
In Beyond the measurable, the author illustrates the small things, small choices, in which everyone participates, but which are not trivial, that change an organization.
In her speech, she gives a large number of examples of initiatives that are possible to give organizations a sincere and robust culture.
This includes peace but also baggage, focusing attention and going out, authority of expertise but also heterarchy, independent thinking but also in a group. And speaking is also a lot of listening.
What she insists on very strongly is social capital, or social cement, as an extremely important ingredient. To build on this, a number of examples emerge of how some managers approached this.
Thanks to this social capital, in my opinion, a number of other things in this book are able to evolve positively. For example, there is the creative conflict, which is a conflict that does not have to blow up in someone’s face, nor blow things up so much that cooperation becomes impossible. In a robust culture, conflict can fully develop, bringing benefits to the organization and to team members.
Another aspect of social capital is that there is trust, within which a person can physically isolate himself and therefore look at things from a different angle, also by physically moving elsewhere than the eternal office. Some people need a walk to get a fresh mind. During or after such an activity, one normally functions much better.
It is also possible to “look over the walls and think along”. For example, the author indicates that by opening up the problem of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico internationally, a crucial idea of solution came from a specialist in cement. Barriers are therefore useless, and a sense of superiority is out of place.
Finally, there is the principle of “leaders everywhere”. In it, she mentions the Pygmalion effect. The importance of having power is that you have to give it. You do this by giving trust, not solutions, but the right amount of attention. People are never recruited as dead wood, at most they are drowned.
Title: Voorbij het meetbare, Author: Margaret Heffernan, Publisher: TED Books; Davidsfonds uitgeverij, ISBN: 9789059087316 (Flanders), ISBN: 9789462983052 (Netherlands)