2009 – Page 6 – The Narrative Lab

Thrive! The role of metaphors … Part 2

In the first Part of this series, Sonja spoke of how the current economic malaise is prompting us to engage with a new management paradigm. She also surfaced a metaphor (moving from being a builder to gardener) as an analogy for what we believe the new paradigm should be. It might have struck as a rather simple analogy, but we believe metaphors have a greater influence on our attitudes, values and behaviours than we give them credit for. Metaphors uncover [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 17th, 2009|Categories: Complexity|Tags: base metaphor, Complexity, effective adaptation, metaphors, root metaphor, thrive|0 Comments

Big and small “s” stories

One of the questions Sonja and I often get when introducing ourselves is this, "Why use the word narrative? We find the word "story" easier to understand." In response we've said that the word "narrative" has more gravitas to it and communicates that we're more than just story-tellers. However, of late we've begun to use a way of describing narrative that Anecdote use: the difference between big "S" story and small "s" story. Here's what I mean ... Big "S" stories are the stories we're accustomed [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 17th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: anecdote, big s, Narrative, small s, stories, Story|0 Comments

Thrive! The new leadership paradigm – from builder to gardener … Part 1

Turbulence. We know the feeling: it starts out with a little shaking. The captain switches on the seatbelt sign, and just as you’re about to click the belt buckle in place, the plane hits an air pocket and it feels as if the bottom of the plane is going to fall out. Then, a few seconds later, the plane stabilizes and your stomach returns to its usual anatomical position. ... This experience of turbulence is akin to what we are [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 14th, 2009|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: Complexity, effective adaptation, leadership mindset, paradigm Thrive!|0 Comments

Case studies and fables

After two weeks of spending all my time on preparing a BIG tender sumbission, I came across a link to this HBR article on Dave Snowden's blog this morning. We believe that businesses have become addicted to prescription - mindlessly copying the latest best practice or case study. Very seldom do we come across leaders who are trailblazers, preferring to be the firs ones to venture into a new area. Usually we're asked the question: So, where has this been done before? Everyone seems [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 14th, 2009|Categories: Complexity|Tags: Complexity, strategy|0 Comments

News: Next accreditation course announced

We do this on an annual basis ... bring a Cognitive Edge heavy weight over from the shores yonder to train up local folk in the essential techniques of gathering narratives and using them to make sense of complexity. Usually, we bring our one Prof Dave Snowden. This year however we're bring out Mr Steve Bealing, none other than the CEO of Cognitive Edge to facilitate the training. Once trained, you'll be a part of the global network of Cognitive Edge Practitioners [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 31st, 2009|Categories: News|Tags: News|0 Comments

News: Thrive! .. a new offering

Sonja and I are really chuffed to announce a new offering:Thrive! through Effective Adaptation. Since about October last year it has become clear that our old ways of managing people and business have been found wanting amidst the economic meltdown. We have watched eagerly as to how the business world is responding. One of the responses that concerns us is the "lean" approach that believes our businesses will survive if we just manage to cut costs effectively and become leaner [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 31st, 2009|Categories: Complexity|Tags: Complexity, effective adaptation, new product, offering thrive|0 Comments

Pendulums and Knee-jerk reactions

When a system is over-constrained (i.e. there are too many rules or too much bureaucracy) it often folds back into chaos i.e. order collapses. For example, too much bureaucracy forces employees to find all kinds of work-arounds to get their work done, leading to a collapse of discipline. Once a system is in chaos, order is often imposed by a despotic leader. All goes well for a while, but slowly the bureaucracy creeps in again, and in an attempt to [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 31st, 2009|Categories: Leadership & Decision Making|Tags: Complexity, decision making, leadership|0 Comments

Heuristics

We often need to explain to people what a heuristic is. Usually we tell them that it's similar to a "rule of thumb" and then try to give examples. I came across this great example on Bob Sutton's blog ... "Today, after lunch, an executive told me a story about how a secretary where he worked walked-up to the boss and asked "when are the layoffs?" The boss looked shocked and wondered what in the world prompted the question. She answered that [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 30th, 2009|Categories: Leadership & Decision Making|Tags: Heuristics, leadership, Narrative|0 Comments

Why organisations struggle to adopt social networking internally

CIO magazine reported on a research piece done by The Burton Group on why large organisations find it difficult to adopt social networking internally when their employees use it so easily outside of work. Some of the key issues identified are the same ones that have hamstrung many KM initiatives. Here's an excerpt from the article, I especially like the quote in bold towards the end of the final bullet point ... "Some vendors are saying employees will go in and naturally fill these enterprise [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 29th, 2009|Categories: Communication|Tags: Communication, KM organisational culture, social networking|0 Comments

Accountability struggles

During a really interesting meeting this morning, it was said: You never hear about "accountability struggles". Power is highly desired, accountability not so. This line articulated a pattern we see often in culture audits. Manager's hesitance to accept responsibility and accountability for decisions often lead to inertia and a "pass the buck" mentality that is detrimental to the productivity and morale of employees. I wonder how much of this is caused by a general intolerance to failure in an organisation. [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 25th, 2009|Categories: Business, Systems, the narrativelab|Tags: Complexity, leadership|0 Comments

Yearly Archives: 2009

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