In our blog we talk about issues that affect organizations. However, those organizations are made up of people in families, and at this time of the year people enjoy family time but many suffer the repeated frustration, hard work and negative emotional undertow of the “festivities”. Does it have to be that way? It doesn’t […]
Archives for 2015
Systems Thinking in a Milan Taxi
The World Expo took place in Milan this year and brought hundreds of thousands of people to visit the city. It’s a city I lived in for many years so I know its appeal and pitfalls well. While taking a ride to the airport in Milan for a London flight this week, a chat with […]
Creativity – the Opposite of Reliability and Predictability?
It is a week where a European country, France has declared it is at war. Elsewhere in the world just recently thousands of people argued on social media about a Starbucks cup. It’s hard at times to keep a sense of balance and where our attention needs to be. So much noise and so much […]
Uncertainty and Choice: Quantum Mechanics for Leaders and Managers
Let’s be honest with ourselves: we don’t like uncertainty and we don’t like variation in everyday life. However, we can, and we must, live with both. But we can do much more than just put up with them when we understand them better and new science helps leaders and managers do just that. Making decisions and […]
How to Grow a Startup into a Sustainable Company
Startups abound. There is no lack of imagination, determination, and even funding for a good idea. The problem becomes, what happens next? The mortality rates of startups is high. We were asked, how can you keep startups alive so they grow to the a next, bigger and economically sustainable phase, especially given the complexity of […]
Four Fundamental Strands of Knowledge for Managers and Leaders
Although the majority of organizations are divided up into functions and silos (and suffer every day from the ill-effects of that) they are in fact one system. They simply do not see it because of an out of date approach to management based on vertical hierarchy and local optima. What do we mean when we […]
Why Doesn’t Increased Effort Equal Increased Productivity?
People work hard when they care about achieving results in their organization. Sometimes very hard. And yet, why is that no matter how much extra effort they may make, this doesn’t always translate into extra results? In some cases, paradoxically, the harder people work the further they seem to be from where they expect. What’s […]
Pride Comes Before a Fall – A (Systemic) Lesson For Leaders and VW
Being conceited can come from occupying a position of power. It’s easy to convince yourself that if you are in the driving seat it’s because you deserve it, because you are intrinsically better than others. This is a vicious circle of wrong assumptions. If you are rich, you are better than the poor (even though you […]
Strategy Failure: Why We Need A Whole New World
In a recent article about strategy and execution, Roger Martin writes in the Harvard Business Review: “To fix our problem with strategy failure, we need to stop thinking in terms of the brain-to-body metaphor. Instead, we should conceive of the corporation as a white-water river in which choices cascade from the top to the bottom.” […]
From Silos to System: the New Organization for Complexity
Why are organizations still plagued with all the drawbacks of silos? Because they still adopt a worldview that is out of synch with our times. In order to navigate complexity, organizations must shift from the obsolete, Newtonian worldview of individual, separate and hierarchical parts. What is the direction they need to adopt? Working towards a […]