Author Archives: David
← Older postsToggling Between Two Worlds: Making Sense of Organizational Change (abridged)
“And twofold always. May God us keep From single vision and Newton’s sleep.” William Blake This is a summary of a longer article I have just posted on Medium to mark forty years since the publication of my first (and … Continue reading
Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged adaptive cycle, change, complex systems, context, crisis, destruction, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecology, ecosystem | Comments Off on Toggling Between Two Worlds: Making Sense of Organizational Change (abridged)Making Sense of Time: Memory, Attention, Expectation
The ancient Greeks had many concepts of time but believed that two were particularly important. The first was sequential, or chronological, time, the relentless beat of time measured today by watches and calendars. In Greek mythology the personification of time … Continue reading
Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged change, Chronos, context, Ellen Langer, Elliott Jaques, Ernest May, innovation, Kairos, Mary Parker Follett, opportunity, Richard Neustadt, sensemaking | Comments Off on Making Sense of Time: Memory, Attention, ExpectationWords and Looks: Leadership Lessons from A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, was first published on December 19, 1843. So it’s close enough to roll this blog out again. Happy Holidays to all! Management gurus have drawn lessons on leadership from diverse sources, ranging from the … Continue reading
Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged A Chritsmas Carol, change, Charles Dickens, leadership, renewal | Comments Off on Words and Looks: Leadership Lessons from A Christmas CarolDon’t Mistake Outputs for Inputs: The Folly of Trying to Plant “Cut Flowers”
Why does so much management advice sound reasonable but turn out to be of little value? Most readers will know what I mean. Take the following guidance on how companies can ‘accelerate their agile transformation’: Create a C-suite with an … Continue reading
Posted in Change, General | Tagged change, complex systems, Drucker Forum, ecological perspective, Gary Klein, Kahneman, Peter Drucker, sensemaking, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off on Don’t Mistake Outputs for Inputs: The Folly of Trying to Plant “Cut Flowers”The Ecology of Digital Transformation: Sense-Making in Silicon Valley
I have just returned from a week of “educating” in Palo Alto, where the third residency module of the 2022 De Groote EMBA Digital Transformation was taking place. Palo Alto is, of course, the epicentre of the great disruption known … Continue reading
Posted in General | Tagged adaptive cycle, banyan, Bildung, ecological perspective, ecology, ecosystem, Goethe, Hannah Arendt, Hewlett-Packard, Holling, narrative, Palo Alto, Peter Drucker, rationality, reason, sequoia, Stanford, Stephen Toulmin, Vernunft, Verstand | Comments Off on The Ecology of Digital Transformation: Sense-Making in Silicon ValleyThe Ecology of Organizing: A Management Course for the 21st Century
For the past six years or so I have been teaching what I call the “ecology of organizing” on masters-level programs at both McGill University in Montreal and the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Ontario. Here is … Continue reading
Posted in General | Tagged complex systems, complexity theory, context, embadtdegroote, embodied cognition, emergence, explanation, meaning, Naturalistic Decision-Making, Rational Choice model, Recognition-primed Decision-making, systemic thinking | Comments Off on The Ecology of Organizing: A Management Course for the 21st CenturySocial Renewal: The Story of the Quakers and the First Industrial Revolution
“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained . . . infancy is perpetual. Those … Continue reading
Posted in Change, General | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, community, context, destruction, ecological perspective, fission-fusion, innovation, meaning, narrative, Quakers, renewal | Comments Off on Social Renewal: The Story of the Quakers and the First Industrial RevolutionCuttlefish Spurting Out Ink: English and the Projection of Power
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 on Cuttlefish Spurting Out Ink: English and the Projection of PowerPodcast “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 ProblemsWhy Management by Objectives Fails (and so may OKR)
With the annual Drucker Forum now taking place in Vienna it’s timely to reflect on Management by Objectives (MBO), the most enduring and popular of the ideas that Peter Drucker championed. MBO was not original to Drucker. He probably owed … Continue reading
Posted in General, Leadership | Tagged Gestalt, management by objectives, Mary Parker Follett, objectives and key results, Peter Drucker, Wilhelm von Humboldt | Comments Off on Why Management by Objectives Fails (and so may OKR) ← Older posts-
Archives
- May 2024
- February 2023
- December 2022
- September 2022
- May 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- November 2021
- October 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- September 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- September 2019
- July 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- November 2018
- October 2018
- March 2018
- July 2017
- April 2017
- November 2016
- October 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- September 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
-
Meta