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Category Archives: General

Heading for London, Vilnius and Vienna

Posted on November 5, 2013 by David

This week I am travelling to London England, which I will use as my base to attend conferences in Vilnius, Lithuania and Vienna, Austria. In Vilnius I am the opening speaker at the International Forum on the Future of Europe. … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged 40, Drucker Forum, European Union, Future Europe, Lithuania, renewal, Roger Martin, sustainability, Vienna, Vilnius | 1 Comment

Evolution is Smarter than We Are

Posted on October 22, 2013 by David

The essence of an ecological perspective on organizations and their challenges is that one looks to nature and evolution to understand the workings of complex systems and how these problems have been solved in other contexts. From there one can … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Allan Savory, animals, change, Christensen, complex systems, ecological perspective, fire, Holism and Evolution, Innovator's Prescription, Jan Smuts, Karl Popper, landscape remediation, leukemia, Objective Knowledge, rest | 1 Comment

Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems: Part II – Philosophical Differences

Posted on October 15, 2013 by David

After the discussion of my HBR blog, “Stop Trying to Engineer Success”, died down on the Harvard site it continued, at least in name, on a thread in Systems Thinking World (STW). With over 17,000 members, STW is an unusually … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged analytical, baseball umpires, change, complex systems, constructivism, ecological perspective, engineering.systems thinking, epistemology, idealism, objectivism, ontology, scientific materialism, software engineer | Comments Off

Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems

Posted on October 8, 2013 by David

The last week a blog I wrote for the Harvard Business Review and the Drucker Forum was published on the HBR site. It brought together a number of issues that I have been talking about in the past few months … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, Cirque du Soleil, constructive, creativity, critical, Drucker Forum, ecological perspective, ecology, engineering, guba, innovation, Iraq, Kim, lincoln, Mauborgne, narrative, philosophy, positives, reverse-engineer, success factors, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off

Renewing Rome Part III: The Future is the Means – the Present is the End

Posted on October 1, 2013 by David

Last week I took an ecological perspective on Pope Francis and his efforts to renew the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). His chosen role of prophet (rather than the other two religious offices of priest and king) is to bring passion … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged analogy, bureaucracy, change, community, context, ecocycle, Fritz Roethlisberger, leadership, metaphor, narrative, Pope Francis, renewal, Roman Catholic Church | Comments Off

Renewing Rome Part II: Pope Francis and Creative Leadership

Posted on September 24, 2013 by David

Six months ago, before the election of Pope Francis, I wrote (as a non-Catholic) about the challenge of change in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). I depicted the church as wandering the wilderness for the past 50 years, ever since … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged change, community, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Jesuits, king, leadership, narrative, Pope Francis, priest, prophet, Roman Catholic Church | Comments Off

Harvard Business School: The Reality Show?

Posted on September 17, 2013 by David

A fascinating front-page article in the New York Times reported on Harvard Business School’s attempt to achieve “gender equity”. HBS has had problems attracting and retaining female faculty. They comprise 22% of the faculty and the “pipeline” that leads to tenure … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged change, complex systems, context, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, gender equity, Harvard Business School, Jonathan Haidt, leadership, means and ends, New York Times, power, Rakesh Khurana, reality television, The New Ecology of Leadership | 1 Comment

Ecology versus Engineering: Why Reverse-Engineered Strategy Is No Better Than A Paint-by-Numbers Kit

Posted on September 3, 2013 by David

Recently there has been a lively discussion on LinkedIn about the similarities and differences between Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean strategy and Michael Porter’s strategic frameworks. What became clear in the debate is that the shared methodology behind both approaches … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged as if arguments, baseball, Blue Ocean, Cirque du Soleil, ecological perspective, implementation, Kim and Mauborgne, Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman, Porter, rationalist delusion, reverse-engineered strategy, strategy | 2 Comments

Is Storytelling a Strategy or a Competency?

Posted on August 27, 2013 by David

Several weeks ago a blog appeared on the Harvard Business Review site entitled “Good Companies are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers.” In it its author, Ty Montague, outlined the characteristics of a storydoing company: 1. They have a story 2. … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged competency, Cynthia Kurtz, deliberate practice, ecology, engineering, feedback, narrative, principles, story, story being, story doing, storytelling, strategy, Ty Montague | Comments Off

Addicted to Heroes: The Struggle to Improve America’s Schools

Posted on August 20, 2013 by David

I have been reading Diane Ravitch’s 2010 book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She was an appointee to the Department of Education by both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and initially a supporter of … Continue reading →