Why are organizations still plagued with all the drawbacks of silos? Because they still adopt a worldview that is out of synch with our times. In order to navigate complexity, organizations must shift from the obsolete, Newtonian worldview of individual, separate and hierarchical parts. What is the direction they need to adopt? Working towards a […]
Exploit the Constraint, Not Your People (sorry, Mr Amazon)
The recent articles and surrounding debate about how tough it is to work at Amazon relate to exploitation. There is only one kind of exploitation in organizations that is permissible and useful. And it doesn’t involve crying in the bathroom. Setting the goal Hearing about the bruising behaviour at Amazon, where people allegedly often cry at their […]
Thinking of Your Organization as a Whole Will Improve Performance
When things get complicated in organizations, we can be tempted to “break them up” to try and simplify. Divide and conquer. That just makes matters worse. Why? Because organizations are in fact whole systems. Everything inside is interconnected and interdependent, so when we try and manage them any differently we inevitably underperform. By not seeing […]
How We Achieved Laser Focus and Acceleration in One Meeting (with a Prerequisite Tree )
I recently participated in a meeting for an innovative digital project where speed is now of the essence. We were able to surface assumptions that saved us endless conversations, weeks of delay and false starts based on misunderstandings. In that meeting I saw in action, yet again, the power of a Thinking Process Tool from the […]
The Leaders We Need Today
A leader is someone who connects with something deep inside you and brings out the leader in all of us. Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, these are some of the great leaders of our times. They inspired people to go beyond what they thought they were capable of to achieve something momentous for the […]
Empowerment – How and Why
What do we mean by empowerment and why is it such a tricky matter? What tools can we use to make sure empowerment is done more effectively? In our last post we looked at the transformational nature of the Theory of Constraints. The road to transformation is paved with actions. In any organization, things need […]
The Transformational Power of TOC (Theory of Constraints)
Once you have understood and experienced the transformational power of the Theory of Constraints there is no going back. It changes your life in ways that you might not have imagined. This is true for individuals as much as it is for companies and organizations. Where does that shift come from? Today is the 4th […]
Build Your Organization On Projects to Radically Improve Performance
Competencies not power, common goal instead of function/silo results, these are the elements of an organization built on projects. We all know that what matters is the global (overall) bottom line of any organization. And yet, when we measure performance, we connect it with functional, i.e. silo results. How do we come out of this seemingly irreconcilable conflict? We […]
Complexity and Root Cause Analysis – Where Is the Link?
We’ve been asked how come we talk about complexity and also root cause analysis. Aren’t they incompatible? The answer is no, and here we explain why root cause analysis is your best friend in managing complex situations and environments. Why complexity and a “reductionist” root cause analysis are not incompatible Let me preface this post […]
Resource Optimization Part 2 – In Praise of Idleness
Our last post, ‘Resource Optimization? Don’t Make the 100% Mistake‘ received thousands of views, hundreds of likes and we are grateful for the many insightful comments received. Here, Dr. Giovanni Siepe takes a further look at resource optimization and why it is essential to always have some excess capacity. Infinite resources only exist in Heaven In our last […]
