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Organisational Mechanics

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Trial, Error and the God Complex

26 July, 2018 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Now I can describe the symptoms of the God complex very, very easily.

TED Talk Tim Harford The “God Complex” is the overwhelming belief that, no matter how complicated the problem, we are infallibly right in our solution. Economist and journalist Tim Harford explains why we are deluding ourself and shows us the only problem solving technique that is guaranteed to work. It’s the Second World War. A German prison […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog Tagged With: beliefs, complexity, innovation, TED talks, test and learn, Tim Harford, video

Management Cardboard

11 September, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Management Cardboard

Management control Rather longer ago than I care to admit, I worked for an FMCG company.  I worked in R&D, and developed new frozen food products for a living. There were two things we worried about: The contents – the product that customers pay for, the fish finger or ice cream. The container – the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, command and control, complexity, waste

Strategic Plans and Complex Systems

12 May, 2017 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

complex system

Organisations are systems System  /ˈsɪstəm/ A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole There are (at the risk of gross oversimplification) three types of system: Simple Complicated Complex Simple systems These are easy to understand and predict.  Boiling an electric kettle is a simple system, there […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: command and control, complexity, strategy, systems thinking

Does All That “Structure” Help?

26 September, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Escapology

Organisations are complicated They have: Customer requirements Partner requirements Legal requirements Compliance requirements Legacy systems Specialist teams Obsolete databases Competitive pressure Profitability problems And all those competing priorities are in conflict with each other. How do we manage complexity? By creating process and structure: RACI frameworks Target Operating Models Interim targets Delegated authority levels KPIs Heads […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, blame, business process management, collaboration, command and control, complexity, constraints, office productivity, performance management, systems thinking, teamwork

The Handoff

26 March, 2016 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Hand off

I am not a Luddite Technology is a good thing.  As it evolves we find new solutions to problems: We invent new applications We write new algorithms We build new tools We develop new drugs Technology pushes us forward. Technology needs specialist knowledge All that new technology is difficult to get your mind around. People need […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: complexity, information technology, medicine, systems thinking

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