Seeing the Whole System When we first started our firm in Italy in the mid 1990s it was to work with Deming’s principles about Quality. It quickly became clear that Deming’s philosophy went far beyond the conventional notions of Quality management. It was about nothing less than transformation. Transformation of the prevailing management style based on […]
Work-Life Balance? There’s a Better Way
Is it possible to find that elusive work-life balance so many seek? We think that’s the wrong question. However, there is something you can do to focus your energies on what you truly need. It works for organizations, and it can work for individuals too. I want it all, and I want it now Our […]
The Scottish Independence Vote – A Dilemma for Brave Hearts
The decision awaiting Scots tomorrow will shape the rest of their lives and those of their descendants. It will also impact the rest of the United Kingdom. Leading economists completely disagree about the implications. We give a personal (and genetically Scottish) take from a systemic thinking point of view. Anyone who has visited Scotland […]
Change or Don’t Change? Do You Have a Choice?
There is a fundamental conflict about change that we all face throughout our lives. If we can verbalize it in a general way, then we have an opportunity to deal with it every time it haunts us. If there is one thing we know we will face in life for certain, it’s change. From day […]
Systems Thinking for Public Policy? Yes please.
Public policy can have severe unintended consequences. What can Systems Thinking do to bring results without the collateral damage? The Mayor of Somerville Mass. is applying systems thinking to creating public policy. An article in Governing.com informs about how linear logic drastically failed the Boston suburb of Somerville when a highway and […]
Don’t Cut Through Complexity: Understand it and Manage It (Sorry, KPMG)
KPMG has the tagline “Cutting through Complexity” which suggests they really don’t understand complexity at all. In order to deal with complexity, we first have to understand it, and then we can manage it. How? What does complexity actually mean? “Complexus”, the Latin word for “complex”, roughly means “twisted together”. In other […]
Freeing Yourself from Limiting Beliefs
We’re getting ready to launch our new eBook ‘The Human Constraint’, a business novel for the New Economy. We’re excited to share a snippet of the accompanying online learning centre that accompanies each chapter of the novel. This section deals with limiting beliefs and a tool to overcome them. Assumptions and limiting beliefs In a chapter […]
Crash, Bang, New Economics (and How We Can Build It)
Our economic models have failed us. Anyone who has lived with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis knows that. Many have lost their jobs, or lost their investments and even their future prospects. Many who expected to have a smooth career path are getting by from contract to contract, or may even be chronically unemployed. The […]
Why Have We Written a Business Novel? Now Available!
If you had to choose between reading a text book about business and reading a good story, you might be more tempted by the story. But what if you didn’t have to make that choice? What if you could learn about a transformational approach to business and read a darn good story at the same […]
How To Embed Creative Business Thinking In Your Organization
We may think we know how to think, but can we do it better? This post looks at some tools for systematic, creative thinking for business (and beyond). A recent article in the Globe and Mail newspaper asks the question, how can we produce more creative business thinkers? What sort of things should business schools […]
