Blog

Category Archives: General

Management Without Principles

Posted on April 10, 2012 by David

Management “principles” have been a prominent feature of the field ever since the 1950s, when a concerted attempt was made to put management on the path to becoming a social science. With economics as their guide and physics as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Cartesian mind, complex systems, context, contextual intelligence, ecological rationality, economics, history matters, innovation skills, management principles, Master's golf, meaning, POSDCORB, The Innovator's DNA | 1 Comment

Measuring Buzz: Hunting Dynamics in the 21st Century

Posted on April 6, 2012 by David

Every manager knows that the “buzz” on a team is an important indicator of their likely success. You can poke your head into a meeting room and, without hearing a word of what is being said, get an instant impression … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged body language, buzz, communication media, engagement, exploration, fission-fusion, hunter-gatherer, hunters and herders, hunting dynamics, narrative | Comments Off

Channeling David Brooks #1: Asking the Right Question about America

Posted on April 3, 2012 by David

New York Times columnist David Brooks is an alumnus of the University of Chicago. Famously he got his big break when he wrote a satirical parody of William F. Buckley’s memoir, Overdrive, just as the conservative pundit was coming to campus to … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged American constitution, Daniel Dennett, David Brooks, Greatest Generation, mission, narrative centre of gravity, political gridlock, purpose, Robert McKee, Toyota Production System, University of Chicago | Comments Off

Bad Apples or Bad Barrels? An ecological perspective on ethics in management

Posted on March 30, 2012 by David

In my last two blogs I have suggested that many of our institutions have lost their sense of purpose, as their means to success have steadily become ends-in-themselves. This loss of purpose has been accompanied by a steady increase in … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged bad apples, Douglas McGregor, ecological rationality, evildoers, figure and ground, George W. Bush, management ethics, MBA Oath, Mr. Spock, rational model, Theory X | Comments Off

When Means Become Ends: Part II – the unintended consequences of outsourcing

Posted on March 27, 2012 by David

My last blog suggested that many North American institutions have steadily lost their sense of purpose, as means have become ends-in-themselves. This weekend’s New York Times offered some more interesting examples of the many different ways in which the process works and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged institutional purpose, means and ends, outsourcing, privatization, Republican Party | Comments Off

When Means Become Ends: Have our institutions lost their sense of purpose?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by David

Forty years ago going to business school in the Western World, with a view to becoming a manager, was seen as an honorable endeavor. Back then we believed that management was a calling; a practice that had the potential to become … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged business schools, conflict of interest, ecological mental model, Friedrich Hayek, incentives, markets, means and ends, measurement, muppets, purpose, shareholder value model | Comments Off

The Ecocycle: A Mental Model for Understanding Complex Systems

Posted on March 20, 2012 by David

I found this evocative image a short time ago. It captures the intention and spirit of the book admirably: three dragons – I have named them Passion, Reason and Power – scramble on a Moebius strip in a never-ending three-cornered … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged adaptive cycle, anticipation, Chapter 11, complex systems, creative leadership, destruction, ecocycle, ecosystem, General Motors, infinity symbol, Kodak, logic, mental model, Moebius strip, moment of Now, power, prediction, Rochester, social traps, strategic management, sustainability, sweet zone, trust | 2 Comments

Ecological Rationality: Coming Soon to a Website Near You!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by David

In the dance of the seven veils (or is it seven dust covers?) that make up the pre-launch of The New Ecology of Leadership, the next scheduled event is the posting of the Introduction as an excerpt. I don’t have … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged agency theory, ecological rationality, emotion and reason, Ken Robinson, neoclassical economics, shareholder value model, transaction cost economics | 2 Comments

Good Questions Come Before Good Answers

Posted on March 6, 2012 by David

A discussion topic posted early in 2011 on the LinkedIn Harvard Business Review Readers’ Group was “What is Key to Success?” What followed were over 600 comments from members all over the globe. I did a highly unscientific sampling and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged ecocycle, Fritz Roethlisberger, key to success, learning goals, performance goals, secret of success | 2 Comments

The Battle for Management’s Future Best Books for 2011

Posted on March 1, 2012 by David

My interim blog for this week points to the addition to the site of my Strategy+Business essay, The Battle for Management’s Future. My scope for these best books essays is “management”, narrowly defined, so it excludes categories like Leadership and Strategy … Continue reading →