Paul Krugman’s NY Times article, Easy Useless Economics, brings to light a very important principle for problem solving—make sure you have identified the problem so you’re not wasting energy solving symptoms. Perhaps a simple example will help explain. Consider that the computer screen remains black when you press the on-button. What do you do? [...]
Archive for the ‘Problem Solving’ Category
Lost in the Leaves
Posted in Economy, Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, tagged Leadership, Economy, Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, Decision-making, Critical Thinking, Business of business on May 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Not All Data Are Valid
Posted in Leadership, Management, Problem Solving, Quality, Systems Thinking, tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Leadership, management, Problem Solving, Quality, Systems Thinking on April 30, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Many people—probably with the exclusion of politicians—have come to believe data based decision-making is the way to effective action. In the words of Lord Kelvin, “to measure is to know” and so if our decisions and actions are to be directed by knowledge—not just by what we believe—then we must base them on data. While [...]
Mindset Not Market Failure
Posted in Change, Economy, Life, Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, tagged Business of business, Change, Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Economy, Education, human spirit, Leadership, Moral Values, partnership, relationships, Systems Thinking on February 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
In an article on Harvard Business Review Blog, titled U.S. Companies Versus the U.S. Economy, Thomas Kochan (of MIT Sloan School of Management) argues the disconnect between U.S. companies and the U.S. economy is the result of market failure. While the management of each business corporation makes decisions believing the unit of survival is the [...]
Rethinking a Fixed System
Posted in Change, Economy, Life, Problem Solving, Progress, Quality, tagged Business of business, Change, Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Economy, human spirit, Leadership, Learning, Moral Values, partnership, Problem Solving, Progress, Quality, relationships, Systems Thinking on January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Is the system broken? No, not at all! It is fixed just as desired. Our economic system has no (explicit) concern for ‘we’ in its design, it is all about ‘me’ getting what I can for ‘myself’—it is best labeled an egoistic economic system. The pursuit of material self-interest is the guiding principle for [...]
A Wake Up Call
Posted in Change, Life, Problem Solving, Progress, Relationships, tagged Change, Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Economy, human spirit, Learning, partnership, Problem Solving, Progress, Systems Thinking on December 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The fact that Wall Street and other corporate executives are not only allowed but helped in gaining so much from the general public while they generally thumb their nose at the general public is not the problem, though it is symptomatic of a serious problem. The fact that more and more people continue to lose [...]
Rethink or Reload
Posted in Change, Economy, Life, Problem Solving, tagged Change, Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Problem Solving, Progress, Systems Thinking on October 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In his OP-ED column in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman briefly summarizes two books, “The Great Disruption” by Paul Gilding and “The Power of Pull” by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown & Lang Davison that each speak to the many social protests (a.k.a. The Great Disruption) we are seeing throughout the world—Occupy Wall [...]
Reformer Education
Posted in Education, Problem Solving, Quality, Systems Thinking, tagged Critical Thinking, Education, Learning, Problem Solving, Quality, Systems Thinking on October 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A recent Huffington Post article describes the agreement and disagreement between Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education) and Dennis Van Roekel (President of National Teachers Association) over the preparation and evaluation of teachers respectively. Sadly what is not being discussed—as can be inferred from the article—is the very process of learning.
Act on Causes not Outcomes
Posted in Economy, Problem Solving, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking, tagged Critical Thinking, Decision-making, Economy, Problem Solving, Statistical Thinking, Systems Thinking, Variation on September 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Properly reporting and interpreting the movement in the monthly unemployment rate requires one to have an understanding of variation. Yes, while it may be a surprise to many, monthly outcomes do vary from month to month irrespective of whether there is an identifiable cause—you can call this random noise. There are also variation patterns that [...]
Mistaken Solution
Posted in Leadership, Management, organizational design, Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, tagged Decision-making, Leadership, Learning, management, organizational design, Quality, relationships, Systems Thinking on August 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A story told by Jay Goltz to illustrate his strategy for learning from mistakes highlights common errors that many business managers and owners commit. Though Jay’s story takes place in one of his small businesses these errors are indeed common and committed regularly by managers in both small and large companies.
Reductionism Can Reduce Everything
Posted in Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, tagged Complexity, Decision-making, management, organizational design, Problem Solving, relationships, Systems Thinking on August 7, 2011 | 4 Comments »
What is reductionism? It is the theory and practice of solving problems by placing attention on its simpler constituent parts or components. In other words, solving problems of the whole—which can be quite complex—can be realized by attention to the most important constituent—the one cause or the one outcome—of the whole. Moreover this approach to [...]
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