Category Archives: Working Smarter

(a guest post by Tree Bressen) consensus process flowchart [Last month I posted an article entitled When Consensus Doesn’t Work. This guest post by Tree Bressen describes situations where consensus can and should work, but gets derailed, and how such … Continue reading →

Donella (Dana) Meadows was famous for her twelve ways to intervene in a system, one of the most often cited works in the field of bringing about change. What is often forgotten is that she listed the twelve ways in … Continue reading →

Complexity theory has been around for a generation now, but most people don’t understand it. I often read or listen to consultants, ‘experts’ and media people who proffer ludicrously simplistic ‘solutions’ to complex predicaments. Since it seems most people would … Continue reading →

[Sorry, folks: I jumped the gun on this post; I will repost it here once Tree has had time to properly edit and approve it, so stay tuned]

Although I’m thoroughly disillusioned with most of the analytical models (like the classic 2×2 matrix) that consultants use to try to describe how things work, I remain fond of “flow” models that depict the dynamics or life-cycle of things. Unfortunately, … Continue reading →

saraswati, hindu goddess of knowledge, creativity and openness (image online, uncredited) Some recent comments from readers of my First Principles post led me to revisit one of the first posts I wrote on this blog, nearly seven years ago. It … Continue reading →

drawing by hugh mcleod at gaping void Consulting ‘guru’ Peter Drucker introduced the concept of Management by Objectives in business and government affairs a half-century ago. The idea was that if you set objectives and measure ‘progress’ against them, more … Continue reading →

BLOG Invitation to KMWorld 2009 I’m not sure whether, since I’m retiring soon, I’ll be invited to present at Knowledge Management conferences from now on. So if you’re able to make it to KMWorld 2009 in San Jose November 16-19 … Continue reading →

BLOG Sustainable Work, Sustainable Life Earlier this month I wrote about the possibility of developing a Finding Your Sweet Spot Workbook to accompany my book Finding the Sweet Spot. I proposed a schema of nine types of what might be … Continue reading →