This week, the Intelligent Management team is in Italy for week 4 of total lockdown. We hope that all our subscribers and readers and their families are safe and healthy and have the opportunity to practice the social and physical distancing that is gradually producing its first results in Italy. May we all emerge from […]
Achieving Predictability in Uncertain Times? Learn to Understand Variation
We live in such astonishingly uncertain times. So let’s do something that’s good for our mental and emotional health and lend some attention to an aspect of management that’s grounded in science and related to predictability. This is strongly connected with our previous post about Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the father of Quality and the […]
Optimize Performance and 1+1 Equals More Than 2
We posted an interview with W. Edwards Deming “”the man who transformed Japan into a formidable business competitor “on LinkedIn this week entitled “Management Today Does Not Know What its Job Is”. Part of the problem is that managers “don’t have the required knowledge or abilities.” Let’s look at some of the necessary knowledge that has […]
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 […]
Structuring Collaboration for Results
We are becoming increasingly aware of the need for collaboration and cooperation. This is not yet the mainstream for management and organizations, but the more complexity becomes the backdrop and context of what we do and experience, the more we need to find up-to-date ways to exist within that complexity. Is it just about being […]
Bulldoze Business Schools? A New Systemic Curriculum for Complexity in Business and Management
Our business world is changing rapidly. Complexity dominates and old solutions no longer work. Some refer to this as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Given all these changes, it is remarkable to see that MBAs are offering much the same program content as 20 years ago. A Professor in the UK has gone as far as […]
Creativity, Reliability and Predictability – Are They at Odds?
In times of turbulence, shock and awe, it’s hard to keep a sense of balance and where our attention needs to be. There is so much noise and so much confusion, so this post aims to remove some confusion in the world about creativity and variation. Seth Godin, so wise about many things concerning marketing […]
Understanding Uncertainty and Systemic Risk in Organizations
If we could predict the outcome of everything we do with mathematical certainty, then our lives would be much simpler. In reality, we exist within a complex web of interdependencies and such certainty is not possible. Hence, we live with uncertainty and its inevitable companion: risk. We perceive a risk any time we feel that […]
Using Constraints as a Leverage Point for Sustainable Growth
Whether you’re aware of it or not, every organization has a constraint, something that currently limits output. Correctly identifying the constraint is the key to managing the entire organization in all its complexity with greater precision and predictability. As we have said many times, every human process, from getting to work in the morning to […]
Ethical, Sustainable and for the Common Good – a Playbook
As Super Bowl fever rises, it’s worth recalling that Chrystia Freeland, global editor at large for Reuters, reviewed a book that suggests capitalism has something to learn from the NFL; it is the duty of society to ensure that the rules of capitalism are working for the common good. The NFL continuously tweaks the rules […]