In a Newtonian world, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Hit a billiard ball and it will shoot off in a predictable trajectory. Basic physics. Two of the greatest management thinkers of our times were physicists: W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, both of whom developed systemic approaches to management. At […]
The Science of Why Extra Effort Does Not Equal Extra Productivity in an Organization
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 […]
The Leaders We Need for Flatter Organizations
A leader is someone who connects with something deep inside you and brings out the leader in all of us. Ghandi, Churchill, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, these are some of the great leaders of our times. They inspired people to go beyond what they thought they were capable of to achieve something momentous for […]
Forget Perfection – the Goal is Quality
In our last post, we looked at eliminating toxic beliefs that choke organizations. In this post, we focus in on the toxic belief of wanting perfection, and how this relates to the serious business of Quality. Perfection – an unattainable goal One of the toxic beliefs people have is that perfection equals success. This is […]
Creating, Operating and Getting Results with an Enterprise as a Sustainable System
In this post we look at how we can create a sustainable system, how we can operate as a sustainable system, and the results this will help us achieve. What would happen if everyone came to work and just did their own thing? Even with the best of intentions, this would not be a great […]
Our Most Clicked Systems View Articles on LinkedIn from 2017
Every week we publish posts, articles and tweets to disseminate a systems view and method for management and leadership. We make this constant effort because we believe that in our age of complexity and digitized and decentralized work, there is an urgent need for new management thinking and practice. We checked to see which of […]
Seeing the Big Picture of Management with the Theory of Constraints
Due to the global success of Dr. Goldratt’s first business novel ‘The Goal’ most people mistakenly think of TOC as just a technique for manufacturing. While TOC does produces fast and radical improvements in manufacturing processes, it is in fact a whole system philosophy and method. The thinking that underlies this theory stems from a worldview […]
Transformation Towards Systemic Optimization
What is transformation of an enterprise, why do we need it and how can we achieve it? Dr. Domenico Lepore, Founder of Intelligent Management Inc. outlines how we can use our brains to make systemic change for a sustainable future. From exile to freedom: splitting the Red Sea Stupidity, as Dr. Deming has reminded us, is […]
Why a Performance Review Makes No Sense – a Systems View
A company is not a collection of individuals. Contemporary science helps us to understand that organizations are, instead, “complex systems”, ruled by non-linear interactions that make it difficult to make any prediction when any change is effected. That’s why any approach to improve the system has to be “holistic”, and consider all the interactions/interdependencies. The […]
Leveraging the Path of Least Resistance for Organizations
Which path is the easiest way to get from A to B? The path of least resistance, one that provides the least resistance to forward motion among a set of alternative paths. Look at the way raindrops make their way down a window, for instance. The path of least resistance is a familiar concept from […]