Tag Archives: change

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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

To Kill a Zombie: Ending Shareholder Primacy

The theme of the Drucker Forum to be held in Vienna November 13-14 this year is “The Great Transformation: Managing Our Way to Prosperity”. In the run-up to it Simon Caulkin wrote a mainly excellent article in the Financial Times … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged addiction dynamic, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, change, complex systems, crisis, Drucker Forum, Financial Times, Global Drucker Forum, Lynn Stout, shareholder value, Simon Caulkin, The Great Transformation, Upton Sinclair, vampire, zombie | Comments Off on To Kill a Zombie: Ending Shareholder Primacy

A Theory and a Hammer: Managing With Incentives (Part II)

I spent the past week teaching a leadership class at the Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business at the University of Regina. At the same time my HBR blog “Is Management Due For a Renaissance” has been attracting continuing comment … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Alfie Kohn, change, complex systems, context, creativity, Jack Welch, means and ends, Peter Drucker, purpose, Sears Roebuck, Steve Denning, telos | Comments Off on A Theory and a Hammer: Managing With Incentives (Part II)

Exploring The Ecology of Leadership: the Power of Analogical Thinking

I spent the past week in California working with a senior management team from a large global corporation as part of their extensive executive development program. This was my third time with the same organization and I had worked hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged abduction, alignment, analogical thinking, analogy, change, choice, commitment, complex systems, creativity, crisis, direction, ecocycle, ecological perspective, executive development, image, leadership culture, Leadership Metaphor Explorer, metaphor, narrative, The New Ecology of Leadership, Visual Explorer, wicked systems | Comments Off on Exploring The Ecology of Leadership: the Power of Analogical Thinking

Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part II]

This is the second blog on the thirtieth anniversary of my article “Of Boxes, Bubbles and Effective Management” appearing in the May-June 1984 issue of the Harvard Business Review. I had been inspired to write the article when I read … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Accelerate, adaptive cycle, Boxes & Bubbles, change, Chuang-tzu, Crisis & Renewal, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Holling, Kotter, McGilchrist, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, The New Ecology of Leadership, yang, yin | Comments Off on Double Vision: “Boxes and Bubbles” Thirty Years On [Part II]

The Great Transformation – Getting a Handle on Wicked Problems at the 2014 Global Drucker Forum

The theme for the 6th Global Peter Drucker Forum to be held in Vienna November 13-14 is “The Great Transformation – Managing Our Way to Prosperity”. The launch event took place in that city last week. Over 120 people gathered … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Bretton Woods, bubbles, Carlota Perez, change, deployment, ecological perspective, financial capital, gilded age, Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014, golden age, Great Recession, inflection point, installation, probe-sense-respond, productive capital, Schumpeter, techno-economic paradigm, technological revolution, turning point | Comments Off on The Great Transformation – Getting a Handle on Wicked Problems at the 2014 Global Drucker Forum

BOOM! – The Perils of Big-Bang Rollouts

Late last year Target, the Minneapolis-based American discount retail chain, suffered a massive data security breach. Just before the busy Christmas season hackers broke into the corporation’s computer systems and stole information from over 100 million of its credit and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged big bang, change, ecological perspective, hacking, HMO, Hudson's Bay, Learning from the Links, Lowe's, Obamacare, Oxford Health Plans, positive deviance, RONA, security breach, Stephen Wiggins, systems, Target, W.T. Grant, Zellers | 1 Comment

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

Skating To Where the Puck Is Going To Be: CVS Decides to Stop Selling Cigarettes

“Cigarettes have no place in an environment where healthcare is being delivered.” With these words, Larry Merlo, the CEO of CVS, the US second-largest drugstore chain, announced that they would be the first such chain to discontinue the sale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged American healthcare, business model, change, Clayton Christensen, community, diagnostics, disruption, drugstore chain, ecological perspective, ecosystem, facilitated network, general hospital, hernia, Innovator's Prescription, Jason Hwang, Jerome Grossman, lukemia, Minute Clinic, pharmacy, Roman Catholic Church, Shouldice Clinic, solution shop, subsidiarity, value-added process, Wayne Gretsky | Comments Off on Skating To Where the Puck Is Going To Be: CVS Decides to Stop Selling Cigarettes

Every Manager a “Janus”: Ambidexterity and the Ecological Perspective

I can’t believe it’s almost January again, but perhaps it could make a timely theme for a blog. The month is named after Janus, the Roman god of thresholds – beginnings and endings – who looked two ways, toward both … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Academy of Management Perspectives, ambidexterity, change, complex systems, creative leadership.strategic management, Duncan, ecocycle, ecological perspective, Janus, Jesuits, means and ends, O'Reilly, Pope Francis, Roger Martin, Roman Catholic Church, Roman god, Rothenberg, The Opposable Mind, Tushman | 1 Comment ← Older posts Newer posts →