Corporate Corruption or Useless Job Creation

Lately, I have been involved in some initiatives related to organizational cultural change and I have been reflecting a lot about this topic. I am really wondering if it’s possible to change a culture of bureaucrats with social skills, aka what I call corporate corruption/useless job creation, or is it perhaps an infinite loop/a self-generating matter/a black hole?

The below video reflect about 50% of my daily interactions in the corporate world. I must admit though that my previous experience in banking in NYC was not THAT much different, except for maybe the social skills element: In Rio they all seem to have great ones whereas in USA I faced something I would describe as grumpy bureaucrats.

Changing Corporate Culture

One of my professional goals is help people do better in their careers and have a more balanced approach to life. One of the initiatives I started at work is showing my group webinars about leadership. It is very interesting later to observe people’s reaction and certain behavior changes.

The first one was Adam Grant’s Give and Take approach for success.

Today we watched Stew Friedman’s talk about Total Leadership, and how to combine personal and professional goals and think on what you really want in life.

I was very proud of our intern that reported to me at the end of the day how he pushed backed on a seemingly urgent request that in fact ended up not being urgent. This is huge in high power distance culture.

More to come later.

Demonstrations are still on

I must admit that I didn’t expect cariocas to be so politically involved for so long but protests are becoming a daily reality in Rio. On my way from work ran into a permanent camp out outside one of the main government buildings. Most of the attendants were policemen and some hungry photographers waiting for a scoop.

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Walking in the fields of Gold

I must have been to London more than 10 times now and I am happy to say that each time I discover something new and wonderful. This time it was Richmond park and the lovely Wimbledon neighborhood.

Richmond Park

Swan lake

The lonely tree

Oh deer

greenliness