Dr. Ichak Adizes Testimonials

Your honor, Chancellor of Caledonian University, members of the Board of Trustees, Deans, faculty, alumni, students, ladies, and gentlemen. It is with great pleasure and gratitude that I accept this award of Doctor honoris causa, especially from this university, and I would like to tell you why.

Implementing participative management in companies where workers or their representatives do not reap the benefits of their participation does not work well...

When you find nothing, the reason why you find everything is because when you are in nothing, you're totally free to pick up anything. You have no limiting attachments. You're not obliged to anything...

2020 was a tough year for all. Globally. Covid 19 was a stress test of how well integrated we are as humans, as families and companies. And countries. Those that were physically falling apart, disintegrating due to age or chronic diseases, suffered the most, actually died. And families that were on the brink of divorce, locked for days, weeks and even months in close quarters, probably made the decision to split ...

Most of the people that know me will find this blog surprising. I know how to joke, I know how to laugh, I know how to sing together with my friends, even to join a circle dance...

How frequently do we have a conversation in our head about an event that did not happen yet? By the time we finish debating and analyzing the event, and in the process amplifying the case and creating a scenario that fits our way of perceiving reality, we confuse what is in our head with real reality. We're getting all upset while in reality nothing happened at all.

... When your spouse or a friend or a foreign person that you don't know very well misbehaves, why are you getting upset? You cannot control them. You cannot change them. Why is their problem of having an attitude problem your problem? Why should you suffer because they're crazy?Since you can not control their behavior the problem is not their mental state. ...

Religions, political parties, businesses, have a symbol, a brand symbol. The Christians have the Cross. The Jews the Star Of David. The Nazis the Swastika. Moslems the emerging moon. I have an illumination what it could be for humanity, regardless of religion, color of the skin, culture, political affiliation or sexual preference.

Those that study a point rather than the pattern know more and more about less and less till they know almost everything about almost nothing. Many of the “scientific” research reported in behavioral science journals prove a point that is operationally useless. I prefer to know something, about everything, shallow as it needs to be in order to see the pattern.

Many mistakes happen because people don't distinguish between the two different requirements. Here's an example. People might tell you, "It is a good decision” but they drag their feet to implement it. The decision will be at best, partially implemented or altered or not be implemented at all, or worse, implemented maliciously: they will sabotage the implementation. Where is the mistake? What is happening?