Creating Authentic Solutions for Stubborn Systemic Problems
KNOWLEDGE will not attract money, unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through practical PLANS OF ACTION, to the DEFINITE END of accumulation of money. Lack of understanding of this fact has been the source of confusion to millions of people who falsely believe that “knowledge is power”. It is nothing of the sort! Knowledge …
Every business system is subject to change. After all, continual development of the system’s capability and capacity increases complexity and thereby the chance of internal friction and conflict. In addition, businesses operate in dynamic environments, with ever changing consumer preferences, and competing value propositions. The CEO is uniquely responsible for adjusting and changing the system―to …
Have you noticed the fundamental disconnect between hot business-topics and recurring challenges that confuse and bewilder the majority of decision makers worldwide? If so, you must have recognized that the methods and tools people like to talk about have hardly any bearing on what a business system needs in order to be effective, sustainable, and …
Back in 2010, IBM conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders from around the world. Seventy-nine percent of all participants said they were anticipating a rapid escalation in their business’s levels of complexity―in addition to uncertainty and volatility. More than half of these leaders doubted their own ability to …
Continue reading “You Cannot Lead What You Don’t Understand”
My pet peeve is with management consultants and leadership coaches who regurgitate the K.I.S.S. principle at nauseam, advocating to keep things simple. Simple sounds good―as opposed to complex, difficult, or hard. However, the solutions they propose for solving systemic problems tend to be unrealistically simple, or simplistic. The following quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, says …
Continue reading “Military Grand Strategy for Business Leaders”
Do you recognize the following pattern? Employees are expected to be creative, think outside the box, in order to innovate products and services, including the very business processes that create and deliver those value propositions. Yet, their ideas are judged on the existence of scientific–peer-reviewed–evidence, or on what thought-leaders have to say on the topic, …
Question: Why are systemic problems seemingly without solution? Answer: Because of the decision maker’s insistence to adhere to specific familiar beliefs, rules, theories, best-practices, or the use of specific and generally preferred resources, thereby effectively maintaining the status-quo. Consequently, the obstacle to finding an appropriate solution in a timely manner is not due to a …
Continue reading “Psychotherapy for Better Business Performance”
Two thirds of all executive leaders participating in IBM’s worldwide study Capitalizing on Complexity admitted to being bewildered and befuddled by complexity. Being perplexed by the complexly interconnected nature of the business processes for which they assumed ultimate responsibility foreshadows their ineffectiveness at leading change initiatives to resolve systemic problems, and to steer the company …
Why are we expected to always DO something? Why is work generally perceived as something physical? Why is thinking dismissed as being idle? And, why is that weird perception so characteristic of Americans? I can tell you from writing @CEOadventure that thinking what to write was more exhausting than tapping my fingers on the key …
Oftentimes, knowledge comes from unexpected sources! Discovery of those nuggets depends on one’s ability to associate and read between the lines. This requires a curious and alert mind. Because it is not unusual to find all kind of solutions, participants, and choice opportunities when we’re not experiencing any problems to which they can be attached, …