People often ask why "appreciative enquiry" is not our methodology of choice, and why so many negative stories, archetypes and values surface in our processes. One of the key arguments is that humans don't tend to learn from other people's success as it is very difficult to replicate, we can however learn much from other's mistakes as it tells us what to avoid. This great post by Shawn from Anecdote about the "non-crime hotline" serves to illustrate.
I really enjoyed this TED talk by J.J. Abrams. Key points that stood out for me: Sometimes mystery is more important than knowledge Mystery is the catalyst for imagination Mystery offers Infinite possibility A blank page is a mystery box Stories are mystery boxes The difference between what you think you're getting vs what you're really getting is often profound The mystery box IS all of us - what is really inside of you?
It strikes me that the search for Air France 447, and the current search for it's black boxes, has been approached in a very routine way. The French nuclear submarine will be scouring 35 square kilometers a day in search of the black boxes. Is there not an easier way to estimate where they are, or retrospectively, in identifying the possible crash site? So, for example, why not try out James Surowiecki's "Wisdom of Crowds" approach to estimate the location? After all, [...]
Give me a chance to go down today, I'll do it! I'm desperate to get out of this poverty. I'm not scared to die or get arrested because even the police are involved in this. I don't blame zama-zamas; in fact I'm encouraged by their initiative." These are the words of a 18 year old jobless hostel resident in Welkom, South Africa. These words are especially disturbing after a week where at least 76 illegal miners (zama-zama's or chance-takers) have died [...]
We've been accepted to present, alongside some sharp thinkers, our approach to Narrative Change Management at the 29th Organisational DevelopmentWorld Congress. The Congress will take place on 20th and 21st July 2009 in Pretoria (info here). In our presentation, we'll profile how a narrative approach to change management can be applied within change programmes to improve engagement, resilience and awareness. In particular, we'll be looking at a case study of how we developed a Change Story for the Turnaround Strategy within theDepartment of Home Affairs. Hope to see you there.
"If you're looking for a role model in a world of complexity, you could do worse than to imitate a bee." This is the end quote from an engaging National Geographic article on Swarm Theory. As the quote suggests, there's much to learn from the swarming habits of insects in terms of finding novel, effective and efficient solutions to complex problems. The technical term for this process is "self-organisation" and the encouragement is for managers to, in the face of complex problems, implement a self-organising management [...]
The turnaround of Xerox is an important case study in today's global economic situation. Here's a Fast Company article that outlines how important stories are in this context. The article also shows how litte "s" stories becomes Big "S" stories: Storytelling is hugely important. At our town meetings, the most frequently asked question wasn't whether we'd survive, but what we would look like when we did. I got great advice: Write a story. We wrote a Wall Street Journal article, because they [...]
Our mining safety research collaboration with Deloitte has been profiled on Mining Weekly. Feel free to read/comment/distribute it. Read it here.
We're involved in the planning phases of a project looking at redefining ICT education in South Africa in order to increase the "digital workplace readiness" of people entering the job market. We'd like to get an initial idea of what the real issues are, and also what the perceptions are in various industries regarding what "digital workplace readiness" really is. We've created a short survey to gather stories about your experiences around this topic, and we'd really appreciate it if you could [...]
In our mine safety research one of the key issues is determining the actual root causesof unsafe behavior. These are usually deeply rooted in entrenched belief systems and metaphors. This story, that I found on Bob Sutton's blog, illustrates how determining what is actually driving behaviour (in this case workplace theft), can lead to astoundingly simple (and cheap) solutions. In fact, as you'll see in the story, the more expensive solutions (installing cameras) made the situation worse ... "This 2001 study was done [...]
