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A free e-bulletin spotlighting innovations in leadership, management,
and organizational development. Please forward to your colleagues.
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"It
is critical to protect the reliable core of an
organization's business platform while one simultaneously
plants and nurtures the seeds of revolutionary
change. One way to do this is to carefully cultivate
the fringes."
—Richard Pascale et al., Surfing the Edge
of Chaos: The Laws of Nature and the New Laws
of Business
"Healthy
systems constantly experiment with new connections.
They are always seeking new information, continually
engaging in dialogue to create meaning. Do we
know how to ask questions of ourselves? Do we
know how to explore our questions together?"
—Verna Allee, The Knowledge Evolution:
Expanding Organizational Intelligence
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This
month we interview Rick Fox, asset leader on
Ursa, one of Shell's largest deepwater oil production
platforms. Fox describes how he and his team
leaders overcame personal barriers to communication
by challenging their assumptions about collaboration
to achieve astonishing breakthroughs. Among
other accomplishments, they were able to accelerate
the platform's construction schedule by four
months, saving Shell an estimated $40 million.
Go to the
interview.
Fox will be a presenter at the 2001 Systems
Thinking in Action® Conference.
Register
for 2001 Systems Thinking in Action Conference
before September 14 and receive
a $100 discount. Register
on our web site or by calling 1-800-272-0945
or 1-802-862-0095.
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BIG TEAM DISCOUNTS!
You can let today's complex economic climate
wreak havoc with your organization or you can
discover how to navigate complexity and make
it your ally. Pegasus wants to help you make
the right choice, so we're offering substantial
team discounts (see discount
schedule) to this year's Systems Thinking
in Action Conference, to be held October
24-26 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.
Let's face it. Teams discounts aren't sexy.
They're not even that interesting to read about.
But team participation in this year's conference
is crucial to your organization's growth and
viability.
Here's how it works:
—Four or more colleagues count as a team
if they register together.
—Additional discounts are available for
larger teams.
—Even greater savings apply to teams that
choose to add Daniel Kim and Diane Cory's pre-conference
session,"Optimizing Team Performance with
Systems Thinking," to their conference
experience.
To register as a team, contact Julie Turner
at juliet@pegasuscom.com
or 781-398- 9700. Learn more about teams
or the conference.
This offer only for first-time subscribers.
Learn
more about The Systems Thinker.
Recent articles include:
—The World Café: Living Knowledge
Through Conversations That Matter
—Anchoring Model Development in Causal
Loop Diagrams
—Lessons from Everest: The Role of Collaborative
Leadership in Crisis
—Moving Beyond the E-Vent Level
—Appreciative Inquiry: Igniting Transformative
Action
Upcoming articles will cover topics such as:
—The U.S. Army's After Action Review Process
—Experiential Learning
—Managing by Means, Not Results
Take
advantage of this special price.
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Unlocking
Human Potential to Learn
Winnipeg, Manitoba,Canada,
August 18-20, 2001
UNEVOC-Canada,
the Canadian Center for UNESCO's International
Project on Technical and Vocational Education,
and the International Centre for the Enhancement
of Learning Potential are hosting an international
conference to introduce education professionals
to the best practices, strategies, and techniques
for teaching "learning how to learn"
skills to children, youth, and adults. Paper
presentations will focus on developing critical
skills for lifelong learning, particularly for
special needs, at-risk, and gifted learners
of diverse cultures, as well as improving effectiveness
in vocational education and workplace training.
Comprehensive workshops will train participants
in the theory and practice of mediated learning.
More
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LEARNING
LINKS
Learning and Leading Through the Badlands |
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SHOP
TALK
What Are the Best Ways to Transfer Management Technologies Worldwide?
and Reader Response to Reducing Hospital Errors |
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FROM
THE FIELD
Bold Vision Puts New York on Right Side of Tracks |
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LEARNING
LINKS
Learning and Leading Through the Badlands
by David Berdish
Today's global economy has become increasingly complex, making
it tougher than ever for businesses to sustain the pace and level
of innovation they need to survive. Large companies in particular
grapple with two types of complexity: system and social. System complexity
derives from the organization's infrastructure—its business model,
how it organizes its functions and processes, and how it selects its
products and services. Social complexity comes from the diverse outlooks
and cultures of the company's workers, customers, and other stakeholders.
The greater the system and social complexity an organization has,
the more daunting the challenges. For instance, a small-town mom-and-pop
fruit market has relatively low system and social complexity; its
problems involve things such as figuring out when to order more inventory.
But a corporation such as Ford Motor Company operates in 50 countries
with a total of 300,000 employees and offers a huge array of products
and services. This level of system and social complexity produces
what we might call a "Badlands" situation: dangerous market
swings, cutthroat competition, uncertain survival—and the greatest
possibility for growth.
Most leaders attempt to control complexity through short- term fixes
that typically have long-term unintended consequences. For example,
they'll micromanage change initiatives, thereby limiting their staff's
potential to innovate. Crossing the Badlands successfully requires
a radical departure from traditional strategies. Staff at every level
must understand how the organizational and social systems work, strengthen
interpersonal relationships, nurture diverse perspectives, and experiment
with multidimensional strategies. By transforming our perspectives
on work and life, we can navigate complexity and create sustainable
organizations.
Read the
complete article or see or see The Systems
Thinker® Vol. 12, No. 3. Readers who wish to discuss this
topic are invited to The
New Workplace Forum. |
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SHOP
TALK
When a company "goes global" through acquisitions, what
are the best ways to transfer management technologies to the subsidiaries
abroad? What systems thinking tools can we apply in order to develop
common practices worldwide?
Marcelo Antoniazzi Porto
Please take a minute to share your thoughts about this issue in the
Systems
Thinking Forum. Selected comments will be shared in a future issue
of Leverage Points.
SHOP TALK RESPONSE
Reader Response to Reducing Hospital Errors
From Issue #11
I did some consulting work with a hospital on reducing medication
errors. We got to the point that I/we understood the root cause of
medication errors. It is the assumption (on the part of people who
design and operate the implementing process used to deliver medications)
that we are all human, and humans make errors. As long as this assumption
is alive and well, people will not design and implement an error-free
process.
One of the training videos used nationally for nurses delivering meds
shows a nurse saying, "We are all human, and humans make mistakes."
This scene immediately frees nurses of the burden of delivering meds
error-free. In an "error-free" culture, this statement would
never be made. At DuPont, which has a safety culture, the mantra is
"All accidents are preventable." Do they have accidents?
Yes. But the mindset of all employees is that accidents are unacceptable,
and processes and systems are put in place to prevent and learn from
accidents, near misses, and minor events.
The "learning" in most hospitals is superficial, a perfunctory
responsibility to meet JCAHO or some other administrator's requirements.
However, very few hospital workers (including managers and executives)
understand the effect that their assumptions have on the processes
and implementing systems they create and operate.
Willard
E. Jule
Readers who wish
to view the complete responses to this question or to continue this
discussion are invited to go to the Healthcare
Community Forum. |
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FROM
THE FIELD
Bold Vision Puts New York on Right Side of Tracks
In
the mid-1970s, confronted with possible bankruptcy and a deteriorating
subway system, New York's public transit officials were forced to
think boldly to remedy the situation. Some immediate steps involved
instituting a zero-tolerance law enforcement policy and removing
graffiti. More significantly, leaders have raised $30 billion since
1978 to renovate and expand the existing transit system—rather
than build new roadways. Improvements include rehabilitating stations,
rails, tunnels, bridges, and control equipment; adding thousands
of new subway cars and buses; installing a farecard system to facilitate
subway-bus transfers; and upgrading the commuter-rail system.
As a result,
40 percent of New York-region commuters currently use mass transit,
bike, or walk to work—compared to the national average of 17
percent. Partly because New York surpasses the country in public
transit investment, it has been able to accommodate population growth
and increase jobs faster than the national rate for the first time
in 50 years. In addition, while still serious, New York's traffic
congestion is significantly lower than that of 22 other regions,
including Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Seattle.
Accompanying
the investment in public transit has been the adoption of new technologies—such
as the E-ZPass, which automatically charges tolls to a commuter's
credit card—to smooth the flow of traffic on existing roads.
Although these developments have led to toll hikes, the increased
revenue helps to maintain roadways and continue the expansion of
public transit. By creatively cultivating existing capacity, New
York has developed a comprehensive transportation system that sets
the standard for other regions that want to stay mobile and survive
economically in the new century.
Source: Neal Peirce, "New York's Transit Comeback: Model for
a Traffic Clogged Nation?" Washington Post, May 22, 2001.
Readers who wish to discuss this topic are invited to The
New Workplace Forum.
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Copyright 2001 Pegasus Communications. LEVERAGE POINTS™ can be
freely distributed in its entirety or reproduced or excerpted for
another publication with written permission from Pegasus Communications.
Contact permissions@pegasuscom.com.
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