No matter what a company does, it is inevitably part of a supply chain. It receives inputs and has to transform these inputs into something to pass on to a customer reliably. It’s an ongoing process, and like every process it can be improved. Today change is happening fast, threatening the survival of companies that can’t keep up. […]
Why Your Functional Hierarchy Is Stifling Your Results
We’re in week two of the course we were invited by the University of Venice to design and deliver for businesses so they can manage complexity. To survive and thrive in our new reality dominated by complexity, companies need to adopt a systemic perspective and a systemic way of operating. So it was satisfying to […]
Three Steps to Optimal Performance in Any Organization
There are three steps that allow any organization to achieve optimal performance. Before we say what they are, let’s step back and understand one fundamental principle that affects how organizations get results. What happens when more than one person or more than one entity work together in the same direction? Is the result just the […]
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 […]
The Paradox of Privilege
In a newspaper article this week, ‘Why is Privilege Suddenly Sexy‘, a writer wonders why “the more we are reminded of the sinfulness of privilege the more we wallow in it.” The appeal of the past There can surely be many reasons why, in our times of unprecedented speed of change and social and political upheavals, […]
Why Teams Need Synchronization to Achieve the Goal – A Systems View
How do we manage an organization to cope with complexity? It means understanding the organization as a system and seeing the interdependencies. Independence vs. interdependence What can the theory of systems tell us about managing organizations? First of all, if all the components that make up the system are independent, then the maximum result that the system can produce is simply […]
How to Increase Your Energy Level at Work – a Systems View
When Intelligent Management first started working with American firms over 15 years ago we couldn’t help noticing differences in working habits. We were impressed by the dedication and work ethic, but it quickly became apparent that those 6am meetings meant that by 4pm people were fried. However, when the CEO goes to the gym at […]
The Traditional Hierarchy Organization Doesn’t Work Anymore
Why are people still stuck in adopting a traditional hierarchy and functional organization structure when there are clearly so many drawbacks? When organizations are created and organized in a matrix of vertical hierarchy and functions, an inevitable consequence is the existence of a series of “walls” or divisions that inhibit the resources involved in producing an optimal […]
Meaningful Work: Elevating the Individual in the Organization
Why do we work? Work has almost completely changed its shape in the last 40-50 years, and the aim that work is designed to accomplish should change accordingly. Work can no longer simply be the organization of many elements to achieve a profit for a tiny minority. People today have different expectations and a different […]
Organizations as Networks: The Physics of Management
Networks are not just Facebook etc. but also a way we have of understanding nature. Network Theory is a new realm of physics and it matters for management. We were recently asked what we now do differently since the Decalogue methodology, based on Deming and the Theory of Constraints, has become informed by Network Theory. […]