Tag Archives: sweet zone

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The Ecology of Innovation

A few weeks ago I delivered a keynote presentation at the Innovation Congress in Villach Austria. I spoke for about 30 minutes on the topic of The Ecology of Innovation to a group of over 600 participants. I began by … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged body language, ecological perspective, ecology of innovation, ecosystem, enterprise, exploitation, exploration, Innovation Congress, KPI, MIT, Sandy Pentland, Social Physics, steering, sweet zone, systems perspective, villach | Comments Off on The Ecology of Innovation

When Metrics Become Targets Part II: Wicked Problems

Last week I wrote about the cheating scandal in the Atlanta schools and the charging of 35 teachers and administrators with racketeering. The incident has created a furor in Atlanta over the charges themselves and the amount of bail initially … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Atlanta schools, change, cheating, complex systems, context, ecological perspective, Finnish schools, Laurence J. Peter, means and ends, Peter Principle, Rittel, standardized testing, sweet zone, Toyota Production System, Webber, wicked problems | Comments Off on When Metrics Become Targets Part II: Wicked Problems

The Decline of Detroit: An Ecological Interpretation

The value of an ecological perspective is that it views organizations primarily as movements, rather than as structures and it can be used at many different levels of analysis. It can be applied, for example, to the life of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged automotive, Buffalo, Chrysler, cities, Cleveland, community, crisis, decline, destruction, Detroit, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Ford, General Motors, means and ends, Pete Saunders, Peter Drucker, Pittsburg, sweet zone | 2 Comments

The Natural Case for Employee Engagement

Yesterday the Strategic Management Bureau asked, “Is the unending search for ‘the business case’ for employee engagement a futile exercise?” and cited an article on the topic. In my response to the question I suggested that the attempt to create … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, community, complex systems, creativity, crisis, destruction, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, empowerment, engagement, KPI, KSF, leadership, lean, management ethics, Max Weber, means and ends, passion, power, purpose, reason, renewal, scorecard, shareholder value model, social traps, strategy, sustainability, sweet zone, Toyota Production System, trust, value stream, wertrationale, zweckrationale | 1 Comment

Clayton Christensen at Davos: An Ecological Perspective on Innovation

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 →

Posted in Change, General, Uncategorized | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, capital, capitalist dilemma, Carlota Perez, change, Clayton Christensen, community, complex systems, context, Davos, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecology, ecosystem, efficiency, empowering, innovation, interest rates, IRR, machine metaphor, organic metaphor, ROCE, RONA, social traps, sustainability, sustaining, sweet zone, The New Ecology of Leadership, Tyler Cowen, unemployment | 3 Comments

Why Conscious Capitalism is Not a New Paradigm

Last week I blogged about my exchange with Steve Denning about conscious capitalism and his claim that it is a “new paradigm” for management. This week I want to discuss the ecological perspective on conscious capitalism and why it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged ba, complex systems, conscious capitalism, ecocycle, ecological perspective, edge of chaos, Gore-Tex, Merck, O'Toole, paradigm, Patagonia, sweet zone, Vogel, W.L. Gore & Associates, Whole Foods | Comments Off on Why Conscious Capitalism is Not a New Paradigm

False Wizards: Why I Don’t Believe in Management Gurus

The late historian, Daniel Boorstin, once said, “Trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.” That is, planners and managers (politicians too) should not try to replicate desirable organizational … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged abstraction, Amazon, Apple, both...and, cause-and-effect, change, Cisco, complex systems, context, Costco, cut flowers, Daniel Boorstin, democracy, ecocycle, ecological perspective, either/or, Fast Company, Fritz Roethlisberger, Juniper, management gurus, management principles, MBA, Microsoft, Middle East, paradigm, Polly La Barre, power, Salesforce, sweet zone, The New Ecology of Leadership, trust, verbal wands, Whole Foods, Zara | 3 Comments

The Presidential Election: America In a Trap

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley and it is difficult to imagine how disruptive Superstorm Sandy must have been to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. He was effectively prevented from campaigning and forced to watch his … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged 1984, Barack Obama, Big Brother, change, china, Chris Christy, Chrysler, community, dependency corruption, ecocycle, ecological perspective, George Orwell, Great Recession, Jeep, Jeremiah Wright, John McCain, Lawrence Lessig, leadership, management, Mitt Romney, Mormon, narrative, Ohio, power, regulation, social trap, special interests, Superstorm Sandy, sweet zone, tax code, winner-take-all | 1 Comment

“Horses for Courses”: Changing the Guard at Citibank

This week Vikram S. Pandit resigned suddenly as CEO of Citibank, together with his longtime lieutenant and business partner, John Havens, who was President and COO. Although Pandit claimed that he left voluntarily, it is clear that he and Havens … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged CEO succession, change, Citigroup, context, culture, ecocycle, John Havens, Michael Corbat, Michael O'Neill, Robert Rubin, social traps, sweet zone, Vikram Pandit | Comments Off on “Horses for Courses”: Changing the Guard at Citibank

The Ecocycle: A Mental Model for Understanding Complex Systems

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 ← Older posts