Tag Archives: panarchy

Engineer or Gardener? David Hurst on AI, the Ecocycle and the Rigidity Trap

July 28, 2026 Mark Blackwell, Arkaro Senior leaders in mature businesses may know something is wrong. Their organisation is efficient, profitable and increasingly unable to move. What they lack is a language for what to do about it. David Hurst … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged adaptive cycle, change, complex systems, context, ecocycle, ecological perspective, ecological rationality, ecology, ecosystem, metaphor, panarchy, predictive processing, rigidity trap, sensemaking, The New Ecology of Leadership | Leave a comment

Podcast “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 Problems

Disrupting Disruption Theory [Part III]: Transforming Human Organizations

This is the third in my series of blogs triggered by Harvard history professor Jill Lepore’s criticism of HBS professor Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. Although her curiously jumbled assessment was wide of the mark, it presented an opportunity … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged capitalism, casino capitalism, Clayton Christensen, complex systems, conscious capitalism, creative capitalism, Crisis & Renewal, destruction, disruption theory, ecocycle, ecological perspective, entrepreneurship, Holling, innovation, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Jill Lepore, panarchy, Peter Drucker, success trap | Comments Off on Disrupting Disruption Theory [Part III]: Transforming Human Organizations

Disrupting Disruption Theory (Part II) – Ecological Transformation

This blog is a continuation of last week’s in which I discussed Jill Lepore’s mostly off-target criticisms of HBS professor Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. There I said that my concern with Christensen’s work was his tendency to rely … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged adaptive cycle, Clayton Christensen, context, creativity, destruction, disruption, ecological perspective, ecology, Gunderson, Holling, Jill Lepore, machine, New Brunswick, panarchy, spruce budworm | Comments Off on Disrupting Disruption Theory (Part II) – Ecological Transformation