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Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cuttlefish Spurting Out Ink: English and the Projection of Power

Posted on February 21, 2022 by David

The Guardian reported today that a massive leak from a whistleblower in the private bank, Credit Suisse, had exposed the hidden wealth of clients who are involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other crimes. The bank responded, … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Uncategorized | Tagged Anglo-Saxon, Bill Clinton, Credit Suisse, George Orwell, language, latin, power, rationality | Comments Off

Democracy, Capitalism and Donald Trump: An Ecological Perspective Part I: Midnight Reckoning

Posted on January 19, 2021 by David

Back in November 2016 I wrote a blog in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s election. As a Canadian I thought the Americans had had an awful choice to make but was just as surprised as many others were, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Uncategorized | Tagged change, click-bait, complex systems, Demockracy, Donald Trump, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Lawrence Lessig, Lyn Nottage, narrative, Norman Orenstein, power, QAnon, Reading Pa., social enterprise, Sweat, systems trap, Thomas Mann | Comments Off

The Engineer and The Gardener: Management Science Versus Complexity Science

Posted on September 3, 2019 by David

Management Science The concept of management as a science has its origins in the aftermath of World War II. During that conflict the use of analytical disciplines drawn from operations research proved enormously useful in decision-making. After the … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged Cartesian Theory of Management, change, complex adaptive systems, complex systems, Descartes, Knightian uncertainty, management science, meaning, positivism, pragmatism, Richard Rorty, scentific rationality | Comments Off

Lead Like A Gardener: The Movie

Posted on April 6, 2019 by David

This is the video of my short plenary presentation at the 10th Annual Global Peter Drucker Forum held in Vienna on November 28 and 19 in Vienna. For all the video from the conference see: Global Peter Drucker Forum 2018 … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged adaptive cycle, change, community, complex systems, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, ecology, ecosystem, Henry Mintzberg, leadership, meaning, means and ends, metaphor, mission, narrative, Pope Francis, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off

Pope Francis and the Environment – Transformational Leadership in Action

Posted on December 10, 2015 by David

A version of this post appeared earlier this year in the blog of the Drucker Society of Europe: To students of management Pope Francis is a fascinating study in leadership and organizational change. From his surprise election as an outsider, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, business schools, crisis, culture, ecology, environment, externalities, faith, GNP, instrumental rationality, modernism, one-dimensional paradigm, Peter Drucker, Pope Francis, power, reason, Roman Catholic Church, science, social and moral development, transformational leadership | Comments Off

The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing

Posted on October 29, 2013 by David

I enjoy reviewing books for Strategy+Business as it keeps me up to date with what is happening in business book publishing and forces me to read and pay attention. With my book, The New Ecology of Leadership, out I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 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

Syria – complexity, dilemmas and a quest for leadership

Posted on September 10, 2013 by David

The theme of the Drucker Forum to be held in Vienna November 14-15 is “Managing Complexity” and Richard Straub, the President of the Peter Drucker Society Europe has been posing various provocative questions to publicize it. Recently he posed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 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

Clayton Christensen at Davos: An Ecological Perspective on Innovation

Posted on January 29, 2013 by David

When interviewed at the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos, Clayton Christensen discussed what he has called “The Capitalist Dilemma”. It goes like this: There are basically three kinds of innovation in the economy: empowering, sustaining and efficiency. Empowering (or … Continue reading →