Our complex world is changing fast and the prevailing style of management that creates silos cannot react quickly enough. What is a realistic and operational alternative to scale your business organically? First, why do we have hierarchies? Silos are a natural offspring of traditionally hierarchical companies divided into functions and departments. Why do hierarchies exist […]
Executive Education: Updating for the Age of Complexity
Executives today must be able to understand how things interdepend and evolve in order to navigate complexity. Current Executive Education provided by the business degrees and MBAs on offer are not providing adequate knowledge, methods and tools. We already propose a full operational solution for organizational design for complexity (see ‘The Organization as a […]
Purpose and Brand – Can They Be The Same?
One of the themes that comes up regularly in our work is that of purpose. This is because we generally start a relationship with a new client by analyzing where they are stuck today and how to move forward towards a more sustainable and satisfying future. In order to do this, we help them to […]
Flatter, Faster, Fairer – Operational Changes for a Flatter Organization
If traditional style hierarchies are no longer appropriate for our fast-changing world, then what is a realistic, operational alternative? How can we make organizations flatter and at the same time ensure speed of flow and meaningful work in a fair way? And how to we achieve a flatter organization operationally? Start with the right mindset The […]
Let’s Engineer Systemic Strength NOT Systemic Collapse
A frightening article this week talks about the risks of “systemic collapse”. The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems. How did […]
Can Systemic Thinking Save the World?
What would happen if we all embraced a systemic vision of the world, if we all started thinking and acting with a systemic awareness, if we learned a method to connect the dots? What if we taught children and students to see opportunities that otherwise would not be visible, to anticipate and defuse negative implications? What if we […]
The Age of Management Crisis and the Knowledge We Now Need
We are living in an age of “management crisis”. This is because so many leaders are unaware of the appropriate knowledge to manage the complexity of the Digital Age. Fortunately, this knowledge already exists. Knowledge, Theory and Experience Management knowledge can only come from solid theory; this knowledge advances thanks to the continuous feedback that takes […]
Why We Get Stuck on the Path to Change – The Human Constraint
“The only thing that does not require maintenance is obsolescence”, as Dr. W. Edwards Deming used to say. This is a fundamental truth: if we do not evolve, we regress. What makes everything more complicated is the pace at which we must evolve to survive. Technology speeds everything up, including the world of technology. Digital transformation involves transformation of business […]
Purpose-Driven Business – Why and How
An increasing number of organizations are talking about purpose. Purpose is the reason for which something exists. But when people talk about purpose they don’t just mean a goal. They mean purposefulness, a deeper meaning, a higher purpose. This is what some call the purpose economy, one that is geared towards good and the social and […]
Deming and Goldratt: The Software
At Intelligent Management we are excited to announce the arrival of something we’ve been working on for some time. Helping organizations to break down barriers, overcome silos and unleash people’s potential to speed up flow is our focus. Now we have a piece of technology to support the effort required. It’s called Ess3ntial and our […]
