Tag Archives: change

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European Union: If You Have Them By Their Wallets, Will Their Hearts and Minds Follow?

Last Thursday I was the opening speaker at the International Forum for Future Europe held November 7- 8 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The theme of the conference was Sustainable Development and Harmonious Society and the title of my talk was “European … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged buy-in, change, Charles de Gaulle, community, complex systems, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ECSC, European community, European integration, European Union, French army, means and ends, Moebius strip, narrative, national identity, Nigel Farage, power, power trap, Thirty Year War, Tony Judt, UKIP, Vilnius | 1 Comment

Evolution is Smarter than We Are

The essence of an ecological perspective on organizations and their challenges is that one looks to nature and evolution to understand the workings of complex systems and how these problems have been solved in other contexts. From there one can … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Allan Savory, animals, change, Christensen, complex systems, ecological perspective, fire, Holism and Evolution, Innovator's Prescription, Jan Smuts, Karl Popper, landscape remediation, leukemia, Objective Knowledge, rest | 1 Comment

Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems: Part II – Philosophical Differences

After the discussion of my HBR blog, “Stop Trying to Engineer Success”, died down on the Harvard site it continued, at least in name, on a thread in Systems Thinking World (STW). With over 17,000 members, STW is an unusually … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged analytical, baseball umpires, change, complex systems, constructivism, ecological perspective, engineering.systems thinking, epistemology, idealism, objectivism, ontology, scientific materialism, software engineer | Comments Off on Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems: Part II – Philosophical Differences

Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems

The last week a blog I wrote for the Harvard Business Review and the Drucker Forum was published on the HBR site. It brought together a number of issues that I have been talking about in the past few months … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, Cirque du Soleil, constructive, creativity, critical, Drucker Forum, ecological perspective, ecology, engineering, guba, innovation, Iraq, Kim, lincoln, Mauborgne, narrative, philosophy, positives, reverse-engineer, success factors, The New Ecology of Leadership | Comments Off on Organic and Mechanical Approaches to Complex Systems

Renewing Rome Part III: The Future is the Means – the Present is the End

Last week I took an ecological perspective on Pope Francis and his efforts to renew the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). His chosen role of prophet (rather than the other two religious offices of priest and king) is to bring passion … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged analogy, bureaucracy, change, community, context, ecocycle, Fritz Roethlisberger, leadership, metaphor, narrative, Pope Francis, renewal, Roman Catholic Church | Comments Off on Renewing Rome Part III: The Future is the Means – the Present is the End

Renewing Rome Part II: Pope Francis and Creative Leadership

Six months ago, before the election of Pope Francis, I wrote (as a non-Catholic) about the challenge of change in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). I depicted the church as wandering the wilderness for the past 50 years, ever since … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged change, community, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Jesuits, king, leadership, narrative, Pope Francis, priest, prophet, Roman Catholic Church | Comments Off on Renewing Rome Part II: Pope Francis and Creative Leadership

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

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

Lessons from Another Wildfire Tragedy: Nature Bats Last

The tragic death over the weekend of nineteen firefighters fighting a fierce wildfire in defence of the town of Yarnell, Arizona is a reminder of the perils of building structures on top of processes. This week’s blog is based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Arizona, change, chaparral, community, lodgepole pine, process, San Diego, Santa Ana, structure, wildfire, Yarnell | 1 Comment

Why Strategy Has Lost Its Mojo

This post appeared last Friday on the Strategic Management Bureau site as a “Strategic Snack“. You can follow the discussion on LinkedIn here The Urban Dictionary gives three definitions for mojo: Self-confidence, self assuredness (especially in sexual advances or battle) … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, Cynthia Montgomery, ecological perspective, Kenneth Andrews, leadership, logical empiricist, Michael Porter, narrative, rational choice, Richard Pascale, strategy | 2 Comments ← Older posts Newer posts →