Strategy is about identifying a direction and creating robust solutions to move coherently in that direction. It involves identifying the systemic changes that need to be created. There are three main phases for this: what to change what to change to how to make the change happen For each of these phases, there is […]
I’m Right, You’re Wrong. I Win, You Lose – Try Joy Instead
We have all experienced this. The desire to prevail, to show we know best, to come out as the “winner”. Cultures are based on it and awards are won for it. It is a zero sum game. This attitude promotes a divisive and competitive humanity. Social media often serves to encourage and magnify arguments and […]
Sustainable Prosperity is Within Our Reach – A Systems View
Is there a way for everyone to prosper in the market? Systemic Thinking leads us to believe there is. In this extract from The Human Constraint business novel, systems thinker Dr. Sam Deluca offers a way ahead for sustainable prosperity. “What is the market then, in your opinion?” Sam gripped the front of the lectern. A piece […]
Summer Reading: A Deming and Goldratt Business Novel for Complex Times
It’s summer and time for a good read. If you had to choose between reading a business text book on new management thinking and skills 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 […]
Innovation and Work: From Galileo to Blockchain
Every year in Padua, Italy, the university of Padua, one of the oldest in the world, organizes the Galileo Innovation Festival. Intelligent Management was delighted to be invited by Adacta Innovation Lab to speak this year at the historical Caffè Pedrocchi together with Stefano Righetti, CEO of Hyphen-Italia and Patrizio Bof, CEO of Infinite Area. […]
Hierarchy vs. Flow: How Can We Exert Control in Organizations?
How can managers exert control in organizations effectively? The traditional model for control is the hierarchical model. It exists because personal capacity for control is limited, and the assumption is that by adding hierarchical levels we increase personal capacity for control. The problem is, work is in fact a flow, and this gets lost […]
Connecting Actions to Results: Radically Simple Accounting for Real Information
Cost Accounting is not giving companies all the information they really need. That may seem astonishing but it is a fact. There is a much simpler and more straightforward way to get real information from the numbers a company is producing. These numbers are what are needed to make the right decisions about what things are […]
How to Build Sustainable Network Wealth
Our present and our future are inextricably linked to networks – the hubs and nodes of interconnections, no longer just value chains but value networks. How do we make a sustainable network? We just received a review of our new book ‘Quality, Involvement, Flow: The Systemic Organization’ that underlines a fundamental shift: Inspired by the focusing speed […]
Unthinkable – From Assumptions to Innovation
We live in belief-shaking times. A recent Globe and Mail cartoon shows a man in a Brexit shirt waving a flag of the European Union with the caption ‘unleavable’, then a sketch of the Titanic’s helm with the caption ‘unsinkable’, finally a sketch of Donald Trump with no caption but the caption hangs in the air: […]
Performance Optimization and Interdependencies: When 1+1= More Than 2
What happens when more than one person or more than one thing 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 any […]
