Those who know me know me or have taken one of my classes know of my keen interest in helping people go beyond method – towards a deeper understanding of why we are getting the results we are getting. Lately, I’ve been working on a thinking tool that might help in that regard. First, a little background. […]
Category Archives: Systems Thinking
The Birth, Death, and Rebirth of Ideas
Watching the waxing and waning of software development methodologies made me think about the lifecycle of ideas. Throughout the ages, humans have come up with ideas. Some ideas never become more than a thought. Others spread globally, affecting people for a long time. The life of ideas seems to be an eternal cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.
Fast Company on Why We Fail to Innovate
FastCompany puts the finger on an important reason why many companies have a hard time coming up with more innovative behaviors: “here’s the truth: most companies can’t innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo. This is the single biggest reason companies fail to do anything new or exciting” via Stop Blabbing About Innovation […]
Interview with Ricardo Semler
Here’s an inspiring video interview with Ricardo Semler from Semco, about creating a democratic corporation. And a lecture with Semler: Also, a conversation between Henry Mintzberg and Semler:
Late Again, Thinking About the Cost of Delays
It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m on the train heading to Stockholm. The train is late, and it’s not the first time. One reason delays annoy me so much is that they break my expectations. I’ve made my plans to fit with the train company’s timetable, and now they are not upholding their part of the […]
Systems Thinking Applied to Management with Russell Ackoff
If you’re a student of Russell Ackoff’s teachings, you should rapidly click yourself over to the Ackoff Center blog, where you will find a link to a rich set of video lectures with Ackoff himself: “When the course was announced the registration requests were so high that a lottery with random drawing had to be established […]
Talk: Problems and systems thinking
Here’s me talking (in Swedish) about how we look at problems from a systems thinking viewpoint, at Lean Tribe 2. Lean Tribe Gathering #2: Tobias Fors from Lean Tribe on Vimeo.
Sketchnoting a Russell Ackoff talk
Listening to Russell Ackoff speaking, I “sketchnoted” this in Brushes on my iPad. I’m a very visual thinker, so this is a way for me to make things stick a little better in my brain, plus it’s very fun and relaxing to do. I don’t worry to much about my handwriting and general drawing skills. […]
New Russell Ackoff Videos
Here’s a set of Rusell Ackoff videos I just discovered. I might go ahead and collect all my Ackoff resources on one page some day, but for now I’ll just serve these new ones up like this. Enjoy.
The Power of Completion: Great vs Excellent Teachers
When I practiced aikido, I was struck by the difference between good and excellent teachers. The good teacher would be more than willing to correct me when I did something wrong. Too willing, in fact. So eager were they to instruct me that they would interrupt me mid-motion to show me how to improve. The […]