The Impassioned Workforce

Accountability; Effective Managers go first

If, like me, you gain insight and inspiration from a medley of sources, then you’d like the site I stumbled across today. Change This is a site dedicated to the development and distribution of thought leadership from renowned writers and speakers like Malcolm Gladwell and David Maister, along with mere mortals. Writers are invited to submit proposals for their ideas, and visitors vote (a la ‘american idol’), to determine which manifestos actually get written for the site. The idea is to reduce the cacophony and increase the authority levels of articles.

Topics are varied but there is plenty to whet the appetite for leadership, management and employee engagement issues. I was drawn to the site by listening to a BusinessWeek podcast featuring David Maister, regarding management accountability and the need for managers to hold themselves accountable ahead of their staff. In his paper “Accountability: Effective Managers Go First”David tells how Jay Betram of TBWA committed to either improve or resign after gaining feedback around key performance measures from his staff. Pretty impactful stuff!

By offering free access and open distribution, Change This (managed by 800-CEO-READ and inspired by Seth Godin) is engaging in the full spirit of thought leadership and encouraging informative debate and passionate discussion. They have issued a call to bloggers to converse and discuss their content, so here I am answering their call. I hope you gain as much inspiration from their archived manifestos as I have.

As to how many ideas it takes to change the world? Just one at a time, if applied effectively by an army of impassioned believers.