Tag Archives: narrative

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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

Is Storytelling a Strategy or a Competency?

Several weeks ago a blog appeared on the Harvard Business Review site entitled “Good Companies are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers.” In it its author, Ty Montague, outlined the characteristics of a storydoing company: 1. They have a story 2. … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged competency, Cynthia Kurtz, deliberate practice, ecology, engineering, feedback, narrative, principles, story, story being, story doing, storytelling, strategy, Ty Montague | Comments Off on Is Storytelling a Strategy or a Competency?

Is Conscious Capitalism A Conceptual Mess?

Conscious Capitalism (CC) is featured prominently in the latest issue of the California Management Review (CMR) (Spring 2013, Vol. 55 No. 3.). In an article entitled “Conscious Capitalism Firms: Do They Behave as Their Proponents Say?”, Chong Wang, an Assistant … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Aristotle, Chong Wang, complex systems, conscious capitalism, ecological perspective, innovation, Karl Popper, Max Weber, narrative, Raj Sisodia, The New Ecology of Leadership, Whole Foods | 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

Decommoditize Yourself! – Coating Products in Meaning

Last week I travelled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the annual meeting of Electro-Federation Canada and to deliver the opening keynote address. The association works with the electrical, consumer electronics and telecommunications industries and its membership consists of manufacturers and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged A.G. Lafely, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, change, commoditization, community, context, cult, David Brooks, Dom Perignon, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Electro-Federation Canada, Ferrari, identity, meaning, narrative, niche, P&G, product life cycle | 1 Comment

In and Around London: A Trip to the Theatre

It’s been a great middle week of my trip to the UK and Europe. I had an excellent reception for the ecological perspectives from The New Ecology of Leadership in all the places I visited. In Nottingham about 50 people … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Canada House, Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce, change, community, context, ecocycle, ecological perspective, emotion and reason, Henry Goodman, Macdonald House, narrative, Nottingham, Old Vic, Raleigh Bicycle, Rattigan, Square Peg International, Sturmey-Archer, The New Ecology of Leadership, The Winslow Boy, theatre | Comments Off on In and Around London: A Trip to the Theatre

Don’t Throw the Past Away

The study of business history in North American business schools has been on the wane for some time now, crowded out by “more practical”, “hard” topics. History is seen as nice, rather than necessary. But if contexts matter in management, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged anagnorisis, Andreas Kluth, change, context, disaster, German General Staff, Hannibal and Me, history, means and ends, narrative, Rudyard Kipling, staff ride, strategy.competency, The Economist, triumph | Comments Off on Don’t Throw the Past Away

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 ← Older posts Newer posts →