We live in the Information age, and while it’s great to have Google, Siri and Cortana at our beck and call – there’s also a pressing need for we as people to know stuff, to learn new things, and to be able to do so as effectively as possible. In a world that changes daily,…
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25 August 2016, 8:30am–11:30am This event is sponsored and hosted by Executive Education at the University of Alberta School of Business and Interthink Consulting. How we manage projects needs to be flexible. And yet how project management is represented is often thought of as well-defined, specific and prescriptive. There is no one single type of…
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This webinar is part of a series of information sessions hosted for the project management certificate programs that are jointly offered by Interthink Consulting and Executive Education at the University of Alberta School of Business. Download the slides here. As noble a discipline as project management might be, it is still looked on with mistrust by…
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In our earlier webinar, we explored the role and influence of bureaucracy. For all of its foibles and faults, it has been a remarkably persistent form of organizing. And, arguably, a useful one. But not without its (numerous) faults. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, bureaucracy could be described as “the worst form of organizing, except for all…
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Jointly presented by Executive Education at the University of Alberta School of Business and Interthink Consulting. 28 July 2016 – 11:00am–12:00pm MDT As noble a discipline as project management might be, it is still looked on with mistrust by some. It can be seen as overly rigid and bureaucratic. Overly linear and traditional by others….
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Businesses that use social technologies and social media are more likely to lead their market sector, have greater market share than their competitors and use management practices that result in higher margins. So what does that mean for you? Elizabeth Harrin will set the scene about how social and collaboration tools are used at work…
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There are solutions to some people problems that from an outside perspective look like magic. Do one small, simple thing, and large, seemingly intractable problems vanish. In reality, getting to the point where the ‘little simple thing’ becomes visible to the problem solver is sometimes a long, painful and poorly marked path. But this should…
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Bureaucracy is an intriguingly persistent structure. While some argue it is the source of centralized efficiency and organizational effectiveness, many more suggest it is the deranged product of power-mad functionaries with too many delusions of grandeur and not enough friends. What is curious is bureaucracy’s remarkable persistence. For an organizational form of working and organizing…
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None of us are very motivated to deliver bad news to anyone. Sometimes the reason is that we simply don’t like to admit failure. Other times we want to avoid the consequences of failure. Or we don’t want to be the messenger getting shot. It’s not always about ‘us,’ though. We often don’t want to…
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Rules permeate our existence. They are the essence of how we function as a civilized society. They form useful guidance in making complex situations more comprehensible. They are also the bane of all of us who have ever been victimized by a bureaucracy run amok. To understand the influence of rules, it helps to be…
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