“The Post-industrial Manager” Marketing Management, a publication of the American Marketing Association, has published this article in its Fall, 2010 Edition. It is a response to Peter Drucker’s call for a new theory of business, and has been called a manifesto for Information Age leadership. With permission from the publisher, the article is reproduced on [...]
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Introduction to Adaptive Enterprise Increasingly unpredictable and rapid change follows unavoidably from doing business in an Information Age. What could be more strategically important than coming to grips with the implications? The message of Adaptive Enterprise is that large, complex organizations must and can adapt systematically–and successfully–to this kind of change. Systematic is a property [...]
“Thinking Outside the Box” is Crazy When we say “think outside the box” we really mean “think in a different box.” A boxless thinker is literally insane. We make meaning when we associate perceptions with a context. According to sociologist Karl Weick, (see March 3,2010 post) three components are required for humans to make meaning: an object [...]
Commitment Management Rigor and authenticity are essential attributes of inter-role negotiations about outcomes and accountability. Here is a link to David Ing’s summary of the linguistic theory that provides the rigor of S&R’s Commitment Management Protocol.
Innovation We innovate all the time: finding better ways to get to the airport, adding a new ingredient to a favorite sauce, writing a poem, explaining why we missed that deadline for the third time…… Innovation is a survival trait in unpredictable times. So natural is it to human nature it seems odd to find [...]
System Thinking vs Process Thinking: WHY (Synthesis) vs. HOW (Analysis) Why questions are about purpose and effects. How questions are about process and actions. System thinkers answer the question “Why” by first considering the external entities on which a particular event or object exerts an influence. Analytic thinkers answer “Why “by considering the actions of parts [...]
Sense & Respond at NOAA The largest S&R implementation to date is a multi-billion dollar systems integration project involving 3,000 people. The smallest is a seven person organizational design for responding to what the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association calls “coastal mortality events.” These include the unpredictable and devastating occurrences of whales and [...]
The Evolution of Managerial Control In the early 20th century managers controlled procedures. Frederick Taylor’s colleague Frank Gilbreth created Time and Motion Study, a method of teaching workers the most efficient sequence of micro movements to accomplish their highly repetitive and largely physical tasks. Supervisors were charged with enforcing strict adherence to the prescribed sequences. [...]
Organizational Alignment For most of us, evidence of a pervasive lack of organizational alignment in the companies we do business with is all too familiar. Who has not been in the highly frustrating situation of trying to coordinate the fragmented parts of their bank, insurance company, phone service provider, on-line retailer, software provider, hospital, appliance [...]
“The Healthcare System that Isn’t – But Could Be” has been added to the Essays page. It describes the severe problems that arise because healthcare in the US was never designed as a system, and what would be required to do so. The specific nature of healthcare problems, and of effective responses to them, will [...]