Tripwires and Cascades
Understanding what a tripwire is and the cascade of behaviours that come from it are keys to linking causes and effects and evaluating change dynamics.
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systems thinking
Agile Innovation?
An agile approach to innovation is intended to be flexible and dynamic, but it can also be flaky if we’re not careful. Agile is one of those great cover words — like pivot — that allows us to hide our failings. Failure in innovation work, as I’ve written before, only comes from a failure to
Middle Ground
When ideas and opinions push to the extreme finding where the middle ground is becomes an innovation challenge. Darling I don’t know why I got to extremesToo high or too low there ain’t no in-betweensAnd if I stand or I fallIt’s all or nothing at allDarling I don’t know why I got to extremes The
Incubation and Echoes
Systems change requires the kind of tools and mindset shifts that can move how and what we see to act better. We profile various strategies to help you do that.
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Systems of Influence: The Hidden Forces Shaping What We Do
Staying safe is about understanding systems that affect our choices, not just individuals. We need to design systems better if we want real change to take place.
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Not Working vs Wrong
Change is hard because our identities often depend on us being right, even when we are not. Understanding the myths we hold to can be a means to get past this and make real change and make it stick.
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Doing Nothing: An Innovation Paradox
Strategy in chaos is like whitewater rafting — it needs stillness among the motion. Sometimes the best transformation and boldest action is doing nothing.
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Leadership Skills for Complex Times
Leadership through complexity requires strategies that match our situation: they are flexible, diverse, and creative. “He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his method of “Zen” navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it.
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Systems Thinking and Networks
The most visible systems lesson from virus spreads are related to networks if we know how to see them. In the early 1980’s Faberge Organics Shampoo (the stuff Steve, the character in the Netflix show Stranger Things uses to get his hair so ‘perfect’) ran advertisements that used network theory to serve as a prop
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Design for Chaos
Massive change often prompts fear, confusion, and a sense of chaos. How we manage and mitigate this is all about the right design choices. At the time of this writing we are seeing entire countries being quarantined along with thousands of people on cruise ships, sporting events being played to empty arenas, and large planned