Tag Archives: ecological rationality

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Engineer or Gardener? David Hurst on AI, the Ecocycle and the Rigidity Trap

July 28, 2026 Mark Blackwell, Arkaro Senior leaders in mature businesses may know something is wrong. Their organisation is efficient, profitable and increasingly unable to move. What they lack is a language for what to do about it. David Hurst … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged adaptive cycle, change, complex systems, context, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, ecology, ecosystem, metaphor, panarchy, predictive processing, rigidity trap, sensemaking, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off on Engineer or Gardener? David Hurst on AI, the Ecocycle and the Rigidity Trap

Lead Like A Gardener: The Movie

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 on Lead Like A Gardener: The Movie

The Ecology of a Social Movement: The Quakers and Social Reform – Public Talk RSA London December 7 2018

On Friday December 7 2018 I will be at the RSA’s Rawthmell’s Café 8 John Adam Street, London, speaking on the Ecology of a Social Movement, using the Quakers of the First Industrial Revolution as my example. They were an astonishing … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, change, community, complex systems, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, innovation, leadership, narrative, Quakers, renewal, social change, social reform | Comments Off on The Ecology of a Social Movement: The Quakers and Social Reform – Public Talk RSA London December 7 2018

Oppressive Bureaucracies Are a Symptom Not a Cause: Part I

This week I am off to Austria for two conferences. I am a keynote speaker at the Innovation Congress in Villach on November 13, where I will be talking about “The Ecology of Innovation” and I will then travel to … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged bureaucracy, change, clueless leadership, community, Drucker Forum, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, embodied mind, Gary Hammel, GPDF14, hubris, hunter-gatherer, hunting dynamics, Innovation Congress, Jian Ghomeshi, myopia, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off on Oppressive Bureaucracies Are a Symptom Not a Cause: Part I

Watch Your Language! Why Metaphors Matter in Management

It’s another launch of another strategic plan to the company’s senior and middle managers and the CEO is rattling on about “roadmaps” and “blueprints” that will generate “traction” in the market and “buy-in” from the employees. The employees are watching … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Aristotle, blueprint, buy-in, change, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, embodied cognition, Gareth Morgan, George Lakoff, Gibson Burrell, Mark Johnson, metaphor, roadmap, Thomas Kuhn, top-down | 1 Comment

The “3Rs” of Management Part II: Rationality and Power

Walter Bagehot once wrote that “The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards”. Following on my blog from last week, I think that this is a fair description of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged agency theory, Bent Flyvbjerg, Bertrand Russel, Bertrand Russell, domination, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, exploitation, Harold Leavitt, hunter-gatherer, innovation, investor capitalism, Machiavelli, means and ends, Nietzsche, power, Rakesh Khurana, Rationality and Power, rationalization, Realpolitik, Realrationalitat, shareholder value model, Walter Bagehot | Comments Off on The “3Rs” of Management Part II: Rationality and Power

The 3 “Rs” of Management: Rigour, Relevance and Rationality

The debate between rigour and relevance continues in management education, usually spurred by management professors’ concerns that practitioners are paying little attention to their research. The history of the problem is now familiar: in the first half of the 20th … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Bloom, Carnegie Corporation, constructivist, ecological rationality, engineering, Ford Foundation, Hayek, Kahneman, Martin Wooldridge, Michael Raynor, Mumtaz Ahmed, rationality, relevance, Richard Rorty, rigour, rules, Schumpeter, System 1, System 2, The Economist, Van Reenen, Vernon Smith | Comments Off on The 3 “Rs” of Management: Rigour, Relevance and Rationality

Harvard Business School: The Reality Show?

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

Complexity and the Plexus Institute: The Critical Role of Intuition in Action and Thought

Last Friday I took part in an online discussion of The New Ecology of Leadership arranged by The Plexus Institute. The institute describes itself as “an intertwined community of diverse people–scientists, business executives, nurses, artists, teachers, journalists, researchers, physicians, college … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged Dan Sperber, ecological rationality, Felix Ankel, Ger Gigerenzer, Hugo Mercier, intuition, Jonathan Haidt, paradigm, plexus, Plexus Institute, principles, rationalist illusion, The New Ecology of Leadership, wicked problems | Comments Off on Complexity and the Plexus Institute: The Critical Role of Intuition in Action and Thought

Changing Behaviour Without Changing Minds: the case of the Stockholm congestion charge

Pioneering management writer, Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), was one of the first to make the argument that in practices like management we act our way into better ways of thinking rather more easily than the other way around. In 1924 … Continue reading →

Posted in Change | Tagged analyze-think-change, change, congestion charge, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, Jerry Sternin, John Kotter, Jonas Eliasson, London, Mary Parker Follett, Nudge, positive deviance, see-feel-change, Stockholm | 1 Comment ← Older posts