February 3, 2010 by progressus
Often those in authority within an organization—frequently referred to as ‘the leadership’—use the thing they believe is valued by most as a way of resolving a complex problem. That is, they throw money at it! While it does cost money to solve problems—energy is often expended—this does not mean that everything can be solved with the offering of money. A recently announced U.S. government initiative clearly illustrates this common practice.
The U.S. government initiated The Race to the Top that essentially offers a bag of cash—$4.35 billion to be exact—to get the attention of those in authority of public education within each state. However, as noted in the Wall Street Journal, “the U.S. has been trying without much success to spend its way to education excellence for decades.” [It should be noted that although this amount is substantial, it is less than 1% of what is allotted for education nationally in a year.] Continue Reading »
Posted in Problem Solving, Quality, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking | Tagged Complexity, Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, management, Problem Solving, Progress, Quality, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking | 1 Comment »
January 28, 2010 by progressus
The recent recall by Toyota is apparently causing gloating among some and anxiety among others —there’s back-biting and nail-biting going on. Though the incidence of failure and fatality are rare, for those experiencing the accelerator malfunction it is significant.
Apart from the priceless human cost, why is it a big deal for Toyota (and seemingly bigger than if it had been any other automobile manufacturer)? Toyota has been known as the highest quality manufacturer—the gold standard in the auto industry. Not only had consumers touted Toyota as the best in quality, the competition had sought to measure up to Toyota’s level of quality. Continue Reading »
Posted in Progress, Quality | Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, Progress, Quality | 2 Comments »
January 22, 2010 by progressus
Just what is the business of business? What should be the primary focus of decision-making in business? If you are like most then you likely agree with Milton Friedman’s thinking—which many graduates of business school tacitly learn—that the clear-cut answer is profit. After all, we have a free enterprise private property self-interest maximizing economic system, so of course profit is the thing! We conduct business to make a profit and maximize shareholder value; otherwise why bother focusing so much on the corporate quarterly profit reports! As noted by Friedman, “the criterion of performance is straightforward!” Continue Reading »
Posted in Leadership, Progress, Systems Thinking | Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, management, partnership, Progress, Systems Thinking | 3 Comments »
January 15, 2010 by progressus
The Christmas Day terrorist attempt on a flight to Detroit highlighted an all too common problem in organizations. Information may exist but knowledge is not always developed. Business organizations are not immune to the design and management problems we often see in government. You’ve probably heard, if not your self said, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing! Information is here and there throughout the various functional areas of an organization, but it is not always translated into knowledge—no one connects the dots. Why does an inability to connect the dots exist in organizations? Continue Reading »
Posted in Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking, organizational design | Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, Learning, management, organizational design, Problem Solving, Quality, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking | Leave a Comment »
January 12, 2010 by progressus
In surveys administered by Gallup since 1965, “big government always wins—by a lot” (Thank you Wall Street, may we have another? ). Initially I was surprised by the fact that the American people believe the biggest future threat to the country is not big business, or big labor but rather it is big government. Even in the face of the recent financial meltdown, big government is still believed to be the biggest threat. I can’t help but wonder how this could be? Continue Reading »
Posted in Economy, Progress | Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Problem Solving | 1 Comment »
January 8, 2010 by progressus
The fear associated with creative development can often be devastating to an enterprise. As a case in point “G.M.’s biggest failing, reflected in a clear pattern over recent decades, has been its inability to strike a balance between those inside the company who pushed for innovation ahead of the curve, and the finance executives who worried more about returns on investment” (New York Times, December 5, 2008). Clearly the fear of loss of near term profit was the primary obstacle to developing a creative idea into an innovative product. As further evidence of GM’s addiction to short-term gain, once GM got into the SUV market—which by the way lagged the competition by five years—it was “reluctant to shift from big profitable vehicles to building small, less profitable cars, even when gas prices spiked” (New York Times, December 5, 2008). GM had the ability—their engineers were involved in hybrid technology in the 1970’s—but it lacked the will to invest in the development of innovative products. Continue Reading »
Posted in Leadership, Progress, Quality | Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, management, Progress, Quality, Systems Thinking | 4 Comments »
January 1, 2010 by progressus
The economic system has a considerable influence on the way business is conducted since it encourages enterprises operating within it to align with its material growth maximization maxim. Consequently, economic enterprises are expected not only to seek but to maximize (their) material gain. Accordingly, those with administrative authority over the enterprise pursue material growth, monetizing all aspects of the company in the process. That which can’t be quantified is not material and is thus ignored—becoming immaterial in the management of the enterprise. [It is interesting to note that the term immaterial has come to mean irrelevant when in fact it is simply anything that is not material.] In fact, the effectiveness of a manager is most often determined by the numbers, by his/her P&L statement. Continue Reading »
Posted in Leadership, Progress, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking | Tagged Decision-making, Leadership, management, Problem Solving, Progress, Systems Thinking | 2 Comments »
December 25, 2009 by progressus
Looking into the clear star-lit Christmas Eve sky feelings of both amazement and wonderment of our very existence and way of being emerged. So here we are between the infiniteness of the universe above and the finiteness of the earth below. I can’t help but think that we humans reflect both.
During the holiday season most offer wishes of happiness and joy to both loved ones and strangers alike. I believe this wish is a heartfelt wish. But then, reality grabs us: Once the season passes, we go back to the work-a-day dog-eat-dog competitive ego-centered way-of-being. Why do we do this? I suspect the system requires us to be this way; just like the context of the holiday season allows us to be wishful of joy to one and all.
Why don’t we simply continue our heartfelt way-of-relating? After all it is not that we are not capable. Some reacting to this question might say stop dreaming, that’s not reality! However, I suspect most will wish it could be so. I believe all you have to do is cease wishing and begin being responsible for the reality we create. Let’s get real and be the difference we wish for. Just think how wonderful life would be.
Posted in Leadership, Progress, partnership | Tagged Development of Self, human spirit, Leadership, partnership, Progress, Quality | 2 Comments »
December 18, 2009 by progressus
Today, as in the past, we anxiously await the emergence of leadership but unfortunately we are often disappointed. Irrespective of whether leaders are selected or elected, the experience provided falls far short of the experience needed. We seem to always get much less than what we hoped for. Far too few of those we find in positions of authority—which erroneously we label leadership—have what it takes to facilitate the needed partnerships for progress. In spite of our experience, we remain hopeful that the next one we get or select will be the one. What should we look for? Continue Reading »
Posted in Leadership, partnership | Tagged Critical Thinking, Development of Self, human spirit, Leadership, partnership, relationships, Systems Thinking | 3 Comments »
December 11, 2009 by progressus
Many will acknowledge that while we may not measure what’s important, the important thing becomes what we measure. Why? It keeps us exclusively focused on what (in-practice) we really value.
So what’s most important to those in authority? Organizations have ceased to exist because of a single-minded pursuit of it. Well we’ve fought wars because of it. It is keeping us from truly listening to each other toward identifying and finding a solution to the healthcare problems in society, and to the widening inequality in society—yes even to formulating a playoff system for major college football! Continue Reading »
Posted in Problem Solving, Progress, Systems Thinking | Tagged Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Quality, Systems Thinking | 6 Comments »
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