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Blog

Category Archives: General

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Disrupting Disruption Theory [Part I]: Storm in a Modernist Teacup

A recent article in the New Yorker by Harvard history professor, Jill Lepore is creating quite a storm in management circles. In it she takes Harvard Business School’s Clayton M. Christensen to task for sloppy methods in the derivation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged analogical, business process reengineering, Clayton Christensen, community, disruption, Faustian bargain, Harvard Business School, innovation, instrumental rationality, Jill Lepore, machine, mechanical, metaphor, Mormonism, Silicon Valley, STEM | Comments Off on Disrupting Disruption Theory [Part I]: Storm in a Modernist Teacup

Is Management Due for a Renaissance?

Late last week this blog was published in the Harvard Business Review blog network, where it is attracting a good deal of interest and comment. It is part of a series by speakers participating in the Global Drucker Forum November … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Black Death, Drucker, Florence, Haidt, intuition, Machiavelli, phronesis, practicalwisdom, prudence, reason, Renaissance, Richard Straub, Righteous Mind, Roman Empire, scholasticism | Comments Off on Is Management Due for a Renaissance?

Exploring The Ecology of Leadership: the Power of Analogical Thinking

I spent the past week in California working with a senior management team from a large global corporation as part of their extensive executive development program. This was my third time with the same organization and I had worked hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged abduction, alignment, analogical thinking, analogy, change, choice, commitment, complex systems, creativity, crisis, direction, ecocycle, ecological perspective, executive development, image, leadership culture, Leadership Metaphor Explorer, metaphor, narrative, The New Ecology of Leadership, Visual Explorer, wicked systems | Comments Off on Exploring The Ecology of Leadership: the Power of Analogical Thinking

Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part II]

This is the second blog on the thirtieth anniversary of my article “Of Boxes, Bubbles and Effective Management” appearing in the May-June 1984 issue of the Harvard Business Review. I had been inspired to write the article when I read … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Accelerate, adaptive cycle, Boxes & Bubbles, change, Chuang-tzu, Crisis & Renewal, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Holling, Kotter, McGilchrist, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, The New Ecology of Leadership, yang, yin | Comments Off on Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part II]

The Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part I]

“For double the vision my Eyes do see, And a double vision is always with me:” In 1984 the first article I ever wrote on management appeared in the May-June issue of the Harvard Business Review. Entitled “Of Boxes, Bubbles … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Boxes & Bubbles, hard, Harvard Business Review, holism, Jay Galbraith, leveraged buyout, reflective practitioner, relationships, soft, systemic, Tao of Pooh, Taoism, task, yang, yin | Comments Off on The Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part I]

Climate Change and Evidence-based Management [Part II]: The Case for Practical Wisdom

This blog is a continuation of last week’s in which I suggested that in managing complex systems with unstable parameters one cannot rely just on data-based predictions, one has to depend more on judgement-based anticipations: In The Rational Optimist Matt … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged analytical philosophy, Aristotle, BCG, confirmation bias, Drucker Forum, Enlightenment, evidence-based, Honda, intrinsic motivation, intuition, Isaiah Berlin, judgement, logical positivism, Matt Ridley, Mr. Spock, Oxford, paradigm shift, phronesis, practical wisdom, rational optimist, rationality, Richard Pascale, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off on Climate Change and Evidence-based Management [Part II]: The Case for Practical Wisdom

Climate Change and Evidence-based Management: An Ecological Perspective [Part I]

In the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, British science writer Matt Ridley wrote another one of his provocative essays around his theme of “rational optimism”. [In 2010 Ridley wrote a book, The Rational Optimist, which I reviewed for Strategy+Business.] … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Clayton Christensen, data, ecological perspective, ecology, economics, innovation, judgement, Matt Ridley, Northern Rock, prediction, resources | Comments Off on Climate Change and Evidence-based Management: An Ecological Perspective [Part I]

Economics as a Moral Science and the Capitalist Dilemma: An Ecological Perspective

As I mentioned last week, Kenneth Boulding was and is my favourite economist and I was reminded again of his work when I came across a New York Times article on capitalism and the Dalai Lama. In it His Holiness … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, capitalist dilemma, Clayton Christensen, Dalai Lama, ecocycle, economics, evolutionary perspective, exchange, integration, Jeffrey Pfeffer, John Dewey, Kenneth Boulding, Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, moral science, Paul Samuelson, Pitirim Sorokin, real world economics, threat | Comments Off on Economics as a Moral Science and the Capitalist Dilemma: An Ecological Perspective

Don’t Throw the Past Away

The late Kenneth Boulding, environmental advisor to JFK and one of my favourite economists, once said that “Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad – or an economist.” I used … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged ancestor, ecocycle, Erik Erikson, generation gap, identity, Kamloops, Kenneth Boulding, narrative, Northrop Frye, psychosocial development, retirement, Rotary, sustainability, William Blake | Comments Off on Don’t Throw the Past Away

The Nature of Uncertainty: Hunting Black Swans

This past week I gave the opening keynote at the 2014 Conference Board meeting on Enterprise Risk Management. It gave me an opportunity to bring an ecological perspective to risk and uncertainty as well as allowing me to promote The … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged algorithm, black swans, Cohen and Gooch, Confucius, COSO, Enterprise Risk Management, George Box, Guntram Werther, Jung, Kant, knowledge, Michael Mauboussin, models, Nassim Taleb, pattern, phronesis, risk, syncretic thinking, T-shaped, uncertainty, understanding | Comments Off on The Nature of Uncertainty: Hunting Black Swans ← Older posts Newer posts →