Tag Archives: ecological perspective

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On The Road

Last week was the first of three weeks “on the road” for me in the UK and Europe. I am doing a series of corporate education sessions, and book-related presentations at business schools and management associations. The past week was … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Berkeley Consulting Group, Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce, change, complex systems, Doug Ross, ecocycle, ecological perspective, hunter-gatherer, Ken Starkey, London, London Business School, reform business schools, Square Peg, University of Nottingham Business School | Comments Off on On The Road

Margaret Thatcher: Britain’s Turnaround Guy

The death of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister from 1979 to1990, and her impending funeral have aroused passions and divisions as fierce as those when she was alive. Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, recalled parliament from its Easter recess to … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Argentina, Arthur Scargill, Britain, change, community, Conservative, David Cameron, ecocycle, ecological perspective, Edward Heath, Falkland Islands, Gorbachev, Gordian knot, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Iron Lady, James Callaghan, Kahneman, Labour, Margaret Thatcher, narrative, negativity dominance, power, Reagan, Shakespeare, Soviet Union, The New Ecology of Leadership, Tony Blair, turnaround, Tversky | 1 Comment

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

New Beginnings: Stories of Resilience and Renewal

It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere, or at least the calendar says it ought to be. But it has been cold and grey with a gusty wind here in Southern Ontario as we wobble our way back to the sun. … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged beginnings, cardinal, centre of gravity, change, Christian, crucifixion, destruction, Easter, ecological perspective, Egypt, festival, fractal, Garden of Eden, Good Friday, Haggadah, Hollywood, Horatio Alger, Jew, Passover, Pope, religion, scale, spring, strong families, The New Ecology of Leadership, unifying narrative | 2 Comments

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

Can Rome be Renewed? It Will Take a Miracle…

Is there such a thing as a disruptive religion? Two thousand years ago Christianity certainly qualified as such. It disrupted the then-ruling establishment, making a clear distinction between those things that belonged to God and those that belonged to Caesar. … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged cardinal, change, community, conclave, crisis, destruction, ecological perspective, Hans Kung, hunting dynamics, leadership, means and ends, mission, mountain, narrative, Pope, Promised Land, Roman Catholic Church, Rome, The New Ecology of Leadership, trust, wilderness | Comments Off on Can Rome be Renewed? It Will Take a Miracle…

The Buzz of Entrepreneurs: Hunting Dynamics Part II

Last week I blogged about the virtues of organizations with “hunting dynamics” – networks that could spread themselves out across an opportunity space to explore for opportunities that come and go in unpredictable ways. Once a resource is discovered, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, community, complex systems, consensus, context, creativity, democracy, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Edison, entrepreneur, fission-fusion, forager, honeybees, hunting dynamics, innovation, leadership, passion, quorum, slime mould, story, The New Ecology of Leadership, Thomas Seeley | 1 Comment

Hunting Dynamics: Why Chance Encounters Should Not Be Left to Chance

A few days ago Knowledge@ Wharton published an article entitled, “How Seemingly Irrelevant Ideas Lead to Breakthrough Innovation”. It cited several examples. The cushioning on Reebok’s basketball shoes was derived from intravenous fluid bags; Qualcomm’s new colour display technology is … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged abduction, affordance, change, context, ecological perspective, exploit, explore, fission-fusion, hunter-gatherer, hunting dynamics, improvisation, innovation, narrative, Peirce, Quakers, serendipity, Wharton | 1 Comment

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 ← Older posts Newer posts →