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Organisational Mechanics

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Was My M.B.A. A Waste of Time?

30 October, 2017 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Thought Experiment

Collaboration For my sins I have an M.B.A.  I am a child of the ’70’s.  By the time I hit the ’90’s an M.B.A. was the qualification to have if you were intent on pursuing a corporate career. The course taught me all about the parts of big business.  I learnt about: Finance and accounting […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, collaboration, communication, culture, systems thinking

Changing the Rules

16 October, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

All organisations have rules We have rules about expenses and rules about systems access.  There are rules about promotions and rules about mobile phones.  Still more rules about budgets and rules about supplier gifts. Organisations have hundreds of rules.  These rules, explicit or not, define the way our organisations work. The problem with rules If […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: command and control, systems thinking

Poor Behaviour

5 September, 2017 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Dysfunctional situations It is easy to blame other people’s behaviour for poor performance: He is uncooperative She is selfish He is incompetent She is a bully He is power crazed She is rude Poor behaviour causes all sorts of dysfunctional situations.  Doesn’t it? The experiment In 1971 Phillipe Zimbardo set up the Stanford prison experiment. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, management style, reinforcing behaviour, systems thinking, video

Thou Shalt Not Delay, Distort or Withhold Information

15 August, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Delay and Distort

Systems need information They use that information to control the way they act. In a system of cells (like your body) that information flows along nerves and via hormones. In a system of animals (like a colony of ants) that information flows via pheromones and signals. In a system of people (like your business) it […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: bureaucracy, communication, fessing up, human nature, key performance indicators, management style, service design, systems thinking

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

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