CIO magazine recently published an article describing the now well-known argument that organisations will lose significant knowledge as baby boomers retire. There is reference to David DeLong’s book, Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce, which might be an interesting read. The piece concludes with a couple of ways IT can be used […]

Organisations that operate in complexity need a monitoring regime. Combining the following three approaches to monitoring will improve an organisation’s ability to adapt in uncertain circumstances. The three approaches are: monitoring at intervals monitoring at events creating signposts Monitoring at intervals Some things change quickly while others move at glacial speed. Consequently, when monitoring a […]

The last week has been frantic. I’m developing a new course called ‘Succeeding in Complexity,’ which I’m delivering in Auckland next week, and, as always, it takes longer that you think to get everything together. I have put considerable effort into the course notes so participants walk away with more than just a slide pack and […]

Darren makes the following comment: “The potential danger is this could limit thinking rather than expanding it. If people are constantly reminded of their past point of view, could it not encourage many not to move forward, but to reinforce their thinking of old?” I guess like any tool, in the wrong hands it can […]

I’ve been thinking about how to best develop a conversation on my blog. So far when someone has made a comment I’ve read it and sometimes emailed the commenter thanking them for the effort but most of the time I’ve done nothing more than read the comment. Not good enough. Nancy White has just made […]

If you are building a business case to use narrative techniques in your organisation, here are some great quotes to sprinkle throughout the story you might tell your executive.

Steven Johnson writes an essay in the New York Times pondering the future of writing with the availability of tools like DEVONThink. It helps you locate those ideas you managed to type into your computer and then promptly forgot by feeding the system a sentence of two, such as a paragraph from the new book you are writing. Steven tells us about the interesting […]

Complex systems lack explicit boundaries. Any boundaries which exist are imposed by people who are attempting to constrain and simplify the system for a particular purpose and therefore these boundaries are artefacts affected by the designer’s biases, interests and vision. This is not bad situation, we just need to remain aware of how boundaries were […]

Farida Hasanali works at APQC and coordinates their communities of practice. She has written a series of interesting posts from a practitioner’s perspective. Farida covers ROI, IT support, roles, activities and all from a personal perspective. 

I’ve just been reading about wicked problems and I’m struck by the similarities between the characteristics of a complex system and how Rittel and Webber defined a wicked problem back in 1973. Jeff Conklin nicely summarises wicked problems as follows:   You don’t understand the problem until you have developed a solution   . Indeed, […]