Our lives today are filled with unprecedented levels of rapid change and complexity. Unintended consequences can quickly emerge from inadequate leadership thinking, so we have an urgent need to learn to think in a “joined-up” way. The definition of ‘joined-up thinking” is: “thinking about a complicated problem in an intelligent way that includes all the […]
The Importance of Understanding “Constraint” for 21st Century Organizations
Today’s post looks at ways to understand what “constraint” means for an organization and why we need to identify it and manage it in 21st century organizations. This is an extract from the business novel + website, The Human Constraint. May opened the window of her apartment to let in some fresh air. The morning was […]
Sustainable Prosperity is Within Our Reach – A Systems View
Is there a way for everyone to prosper in the market? Systemic Thinking leads us to believe there is. In this extract from The Human Constraint business novel, systems thinker Dr. Sam Deluca offers a way ahead for sustainable prosperity. “What is the market then, in your opinion?” Sam gripped the front of the lectern. A piece […]
Free Yourself and Your Organization from Limiting Beliefs
Every individual, business and organization experiences the sensation of getting stuck at some point. They know they are capable of doing more, even significantly more, but they don’t know how. We learn from the Theory of Constraints that this situation of blockage is an opportunity. It is created not by what is real but what […]
Summer Reading: A Deming and Goldratt Business Novel for Complex Times
It’s summer and time for a good read. If you had to choose between reading a business text book on new management thinking and skills and reading a good story, you might be more tempted by the story. But what if you didn’t have to make that choice? What if you could learn about a […]
Creative Thinking for Business – A Process that Can Be Learned
How can we produce more creative business thinkers? What sort of things should business schools be teaching to make that happen? When asked those questions, Neil Turok, Physicist and the director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario answered: “I’d want to show students how to see vast opportunities where everyone else […]
Another Financial Crisis? Ethics and Wall Street Regulation
Today we learn that the Trump administration have just made an assault on financial regulation, announcing an ‘array of steps to tear down safeguards enacted to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis’ according to the New York Times. Described as a ‘gift to Wall Street’, the news leaves us speechless, so our blog post […]
Systems Thinking for Public Policy? Yes please.
Public policy can have severe unintended consequences. What can Systems Thinking do to bring results without the collateral damage? The Mayor of Somerville Mass. is applying systems thinking to creating public policy. An article in Governing.com informs about how linear logic drastically failed the Boston suburb of Somerville when a highway and […]
Don’t get stuck on thinking blocks. Think again, think better (systemically)
How can people keep thinking something when evidence around them is screaming a different reality? How can we make sure that thinking blocks don’t happen to us? It’s more common that we would like to believe. We may want to be independent thinkers, but we end up following the crowd, arriving at conclusions that are […]