Geoff Marlow on adaptive and agile organisations

Work Punks

Our special guest on this first episode of 2024 is Geoff Marlow, well-known for his work with large organisations on getting them to become more innovative, agile and adaptive, and for the Five Fatal Habits he identified as key when organisations fail in their attempts to become more nimble.
Both in his education and his early career, Geoff realised that being empowered and encouraged to explore, experiment and learn suited him better than adopting so-called best-practices and (re)produce what others told him was best. It turned out this insight helped him greatly when organisations starting asking him for help to become more innovative and nimble.
In our conversation with Geoff we explore these career themes, his views on what makes the difference between inert organisations and adaptive ones, and on the detrimental role that large management consultancy firms play in keeping organisations from developing their own innovation muscle mass.
For more details on the research, articles, blogs and other sources mentioned:
- Geoff Marlow: https://www.geoffmarlow.com/
- Plowden Report: https://education-uk.org/documents/pl...
- Max Plack’s quote “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” In Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, (1949), as translated by F. Gaynor, pp. 33–34, 97 (as cited in T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). Translation revised by Eric Weinberger. Via Wikiquote at: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck
- The Principles of Scientific Management, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Dover Publications Inc. 1909, ISBN 13 9780486299884
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge, Cornerstone Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0-385-26095-4