Physicists are educated to ask fundamental questions to understand the nature of things and to understand them in terms of energy and speed. What has that got to do with management, you may wonder? A great deal. An organization is a complex system where different forms of energy interdepend: human energy, mechanical energy, electrical and […]
Leading and Managing Change Effectively: It’s A Process that Includes You – A Systemic Approach Part 11
Every solution is a change. If entrepreneurs and leaders want new solutions to be implemented successfully, then all those involved have to be able to adapt their way of behaving to the requirements of that solution. This means we have to develop and communicate this solution in a way that everyone is involved in its […]
Controlling the Whole Organization through the Constraint – A Systemic Approach Part 10
Just ONE point of your organization can help you organize and manage your whole company. It’s a strategically chosen constraint. Everything else is connected to it so you can focus on ONE area instead of trying to focus on ALL areas – something that is impossible and a great time waster. Step Five of the […]
Improving Flow Company Wide – A Systemic Approach Part 9
In the previous posts in this series on the Ten Steps of the Decalogue Method we looked at the way Statistical Process Control (SPC), a strategically chosen constraint and managing the constraint buffer provide us with the focus and the practical mechanism to run our organization. However, there is still a very crucial element that […]
Why Your Organization’s Constraints are the Key to Success – A Systemic Approach Part 8
Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt’s main contribution to the theory of management has been to point out that any system is limited toward its goal by very few elements, the constraints. If we identify them we can manage them following the focusing steps that he developed. The Decalogue method leverages the intrinsic stability of a Deming-based system and […]
Working with Variation to Support Good Decision Making – A Systemic Approach Part 7
In our previous post we looked at understanding variation and processes. In this post we continue with Step Three of the Decalogue Management Method, “Make the system stable (understand variation and its impact on the network)” by looking at gathering data and why that matters. What leaders and managers have to bear in mind is that […]
Create Stability and Predictability in Your Organization by Understanding Variation – A Systemic Approach Part 6
In step Two of the Decalogue, we mapped out our system using Deployment Flowcharts to map the major processes. Now that we are in a situation where we can “see” our organization as a system made up of processes, we have to understand how variation affects our organization. Step Three of the Decalogue management method […]
Leadership for Complex Times – A Systemic Approach Part 5
As usual, the Intelligent Management team are straddling two continents and the travel commitments have kept us occupied. To continue the flow with this series on the Ten Steps of the Decalogue Method, a systemic method for management, we’re inserting a short piece about leadership that was written just as the world was in the […]
How to Drastically Improve Company Results Through Healthy Interactions – A Systemic Approach Part 4
Now that we know how to measure what matters (see How to Make the Best Decisions for Your Company and Measure What Matters – A Systemic Approach to Management Part 3 ) we can focus on really understanding the interactions in our organization/system. Step Two of the Decalogue Method is Understand the system (draw the interdependencies). If we […]
How to Make the Best Decisions for Your Company and Measure What Matters – A Systemic Approach Part 3
In the previous post we looked at interdependencies and establishing the goal of the system. In order to steer our system in the right direction we have to know how to make the right decisions. To do this it is essential that we be capable of assessing to what extent our system is achieving its […]
