Tag Archives: wicked problems

Podcast “Lead Like a Gardener: An Ecological Approach to Wicked Problems

Last week I did a podcast with Toby Corballis of Wicked Problems. Toby is an agile business transformation specialist based in The Hague in the Netherlands. I had been attracted to his site by his earlier excellent interview with Keith … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Strategy | Tagged adaptive cycle, bureaucracy, complex systems, Dealingwith Darwin, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecology, ecosystem, Geoffrey Moore, hierarchy, narrative, navigating, panarchy, product lifecycle, The New Ecology of Leadership, Toby Corballis, wayfinding, wicked problems | Comments Off on Podcast “Lead Like a Gardener: An Ecological Approach to Wicked Problems

Drucker’s Intent and Why MBO Fails

Last week I blogged about mission command – auftragstaktik – a philosophy of command-and-collaboration developed by the German General Staff over a period of about eighty years, beginning in the 19th Century. Today its elements can be found in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, auftragstaktik, befehlstaktik, Descartes, detailed command, dichotomy, Drucker Forum, Efficiency Movement, existential rationalist, Frederick Taylor, German General Staff, Gestalt, Heidegger, instrumental rationality, intuition, key performance indicators, Kierkegaard, KPI, Lynda Gratton, management by objectives, MBO, mission command, Peter Drucker, philosophy, self-discipline, Soviet Union, Sputnik, tension, wicked problems | 5 Comments

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

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 Ecology of Health Care: in Sickness and in Health

Health care in America is in a horrible mess, the lair of what complexity theorists call “wicked problems”. A recent article in Wired magazine described it as “a morass, a quagmire, a slough of policy despond”. As every one knows, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, community, complex systems, complexity theory, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, healthcare, industry rollup, means and ends, private-equity, systems theory, The New Ecology of Leadership, upcode, vertical integration, wicked problems | 2 Comments