And now for something completely different… Do you want to hear insight and foresight about business like you’ve never heard before? Dr. Domenico Lepore is one of the most provocative, knowledgeable and impactful business thinkers today. (And yes, he’s our Founder!) Today’s post is a quick break from our series on a systemic approach to org […]
Shifting Your Focus from Cost to Throughput is How You Can Thrive – a Systemic Approach Part 15
In the previous posts in this series, we looked at how to build and manage an organization as a system to radically improve performance and compete in today’s complex, non-linear global business environment. This is what the Decalogue methodology was designed to do. So what happens when the company achieves a much higher level of […]
Are Companies with a Hierarchical/Functional Mindset Dinosaurs? A Systemic Approach Part 14
If you are a company that has a Hierarchical/Functional mindset, are you a dinosaur? We would say yes and time is running out for such companies in today’s complex scenario. It is also an enormous opportunity for all those companies who decide to abandon flawed thinking and adopt an evolved approach. In today’s post, Dr. […]
Company Functions Are Limiting Your Organization’s Performance – A Systemic Approach Part 13
There is something very flawed in the traditional hierarchy/ function style of management for today’s world where speed of flow is key: it creates artificial separations inside a company. This separation interferes directly with performance because it interrupts the natural flow of interactions. We continue in this post with Step 7 of the Decalogue: ‘Create […]
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 […]