If you’re looking for a way to increase your productivity, and most of us are, you can take some powerful inputs from the Theory of Constraints. Every day, we all have to perform a number of tasks in different areas of our lives. Clearly, we can’t give equal attention to everything, so how can we […]
Crisis, Learning, Prevention, Survival – An Interrupted Cycle
The news of the tragic earthquake in Italy in the town of Amatrice has affected us all. Two partners at Intelligent Management were directly involved in a major earthquake in their hometown of Salerno in Italy in 1980 that changed the lives of many. Our hearts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones, […]
Constraints? Not a Bad Thing
On a client’s website, they rightfully explain that their technology frees their customers of certain constraints. What exactly do we mean by constraints and are they a totally bad thing? We all want more freedom. A constraint would seem, by definition, to be something that robs us of freedom. But what we need to do […]
Dysfunctional Organization: Definition and Cure
“There is no such thing as a dysfunctional organization, because every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it gets.” – Jeff Lawrence. We were asked to comment on this statement. Here is our reply. The word dysfunctional contains the prefix dys- from the Greek meaning “bad”, “abnormal”, “difficult”, or “impaired”. We can say […]
The Theory of Everything of Management
There are times when everything seems to be going in different directions, at odds and in conflict. What if in the world of business and management there were a solution? What if the way we manage and they way we produce, buy and sell could contain many of the answers we are looking for? When […]
How to Optimize Performance in an Organization
What happens when more than one person or more than one entity work together in the same direction? Is the result just the simple sum of their efforts? The answer to this question is yes, but… ONLY when the elements involved are independent of each other. In the theory of systems, the global “performance” of […]
Divisiveness: What Companies Can Do About It
Divisiveness is one of the most negative forces we face, whether it be at the level of individuals or nations. It is paradoxical that there is so much divisiveness in the world today when we have unprecedented technological means for connection. Polarization is increasing, creating an ever greater divide between the haves and have nots […]
Unintended Consequences Hurt: Summer Reading for Joined Up Thinking
Our lives today are filled with unprecedented levels of rapid change and complexity. Unintended consequences can quickly emerge from inadequate thinking, so we have an urgent need to learn to think in a “joined-up” way. The definition of ‘joined-up thinking” is: “thinking about a complicated problem in an intelligent way that includes all the important […]
Why Businesses Can Change the World (for the better)
People struggle to understand big systems, such as nations and alliances. It’s just too big and complicated (what better proof than U.K. citizens voting to leave the European Union.) So they try to break things down into simpler pieces and set up barriers (silos, fiefdoms, departments). Unfortunately, that just doesn’t work in today’s complex reality […]
How To Overcome Resistance To Change – a Systemic Approach
Any time leaders try to introduce change into an organization they will be faced with the fear and conflicts of the people involved in the changes. In our series we’ve been talking specifically about digital transformation but it is true for any major shift. If these reactions and resistance to change are not managed they will […]
