Comments on: We All Need a Shift

By: Rokapchen

Rokapchen — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:01:21 +0000

Having worked ‘inside’ of our government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://cdc.gov/) to see the volumes of money spent simply to mollify the bad choices/behaviors of people and to manage warehouses full of posters and other ‘promotional’ materials under the guise of ‘information’, I shrink over your mention of swine flu vaccinations: http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13585800

By: Thierry de Baillon

Thierry de Baillon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:28:41 +0000

Same kind of foolishness has invaded our whole societies, where ‘risk avoidance’ is named ‘precautionary principle’, but expresses the same reluctance to embrace complexity and, as you so rightfully write, its inherent paradoxes.
Look for instance at the recent vaccination frenzy against swine flu. How much will it cost us? For France, figures are up from 1 billion euros to 2, including communication campaigns and failed logistics.

By: Thierry de Baillon

Thierry de Baillon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:21:22 +0000

Jon, Paula,
you are making my day by filling my bookshelves for the forthcoming weeks!

By: Rokapchen

Rokapchen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:22:46 +0000

Process typically is optimized to ferret out variability and failure. It’s the antithesis of the environment needed for innovation, a means to embrace ‘constructive failure’: http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/02/05/want-to-succeed-try-failing/

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:30:51 +0000

Have you folks read this beautiful short essay by a friend of mine (Bruce Stewart) titled “What Organizations Value Most of All”? He’s written a very well done interpretation of Handy’s premise in the book “The Gods Of Management” as applied to today’s context.

By: Rokapchen

Rokapchen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:17:40 +0000

I have to laugh at the ‘risk avoidance’ statement. How foolish we are in our narrow focuses. A work assignment was given a ‘cease and desist order’ from the lawyers in two companies. Ten days later it is not resolved. The monies spent already will NEVER be recouped by the billings associated with the project, and yet where is the larger ‘divine eye’ that can see this and send down a booming voice of wisdom to stop the foolishness?

By: Rokapchen

Rokapchen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:13:46 +0000

Beautiful! Process is a key area of focus as we figure all of this out. I just haven’t figured out ‘why’ it’s so relevant other than we fail to understand how to embrace the paradox. As we learned to embrace digital technology, we adopted a very binary mindset: either, or — if, then. Even ‘rules’ have to be codified to a binary form, vs. the very real, complex form that is needed, like “when…”.

We are faced with moving from black/white to infinite shades of grey (even before we attempt the full color spectrum). To do so requires design. The more we understand how to embrace the entire design spectrum in our solutions, the better off we will be (see diagram: http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2009/09/16/e2-0-unleashing-the-potential/).

Currently, I’m trying to absorb at a neural level all that Charles Handy introduces in “The Age of Paradox.” We do not live in a world of dualities, we live in a world of paradoxes — the embracing of the dualities to capitalize on a new ‘middle’ — a moving turbulent middle — the crest of the wave.

By: Thierry de Baillon

Thierry de Baillon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:32:34 +0000

Typically, society changes ahead of commercial organizations and that’s the case now: individual interests have moved far out in front of the ability of companies to serve them. (quoting Soshana Zuboff)

So true.. Thanks for the link and for the compliment, Jon. Power, and the way organizations as well as individuals think they earn it, is our worst enemy in many respects.

By: Thierry de Baillon

Thierry de Baillon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:16:57 +0000

Thanks Berend,
you are raising an important issue there. Our job, as practitioners, bloggers, whatsoever, is to keep on driving execs step by step into new, blatantly more sustainable tracks, while envisioning what is the necessary future of organizations. Our world is more Darwinian than ever, and evolution is what will keep orgs alive.
As you wrote, we have to “speak the language of today’s business leaders” and try to figure out the big picture, if any, so they will only have to follow the yellow brick lane…

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:53:53 +0000

Very strong and well-articulated post, Thierry.

But as the strategic need to empower individuals (the micro-foundations level of dynamic capabilities) emerges, we will have to shift from a “processes at the service of business” to a “processes at the service of people view”, service design thinking in other words

Exactly.

It seems clear to me that (eventually) this will be the way work is done. The adaptation(s) will have to happen, sooner or later.

A very interesting (and pretty much overlooked) book from 2005 goes into these issues in a deep way. The title is “The Support Economy – why corporations are failing individuals and the next episode of capitalism”, by Shoshana Zuboff and Jim Maxmin. Recommended.