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 A free e-newsletter spotlighting systemic thinking and innovations in leadership, management, and organizational development. Please forward to your colleagues. 
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FACE
TO FACE An Edge-Dweller by Nature: An Interview with Roger Saillant |
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PEGASUS
CONFERENCE UPDATE |
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LEARNING
LINKS Introducing Systems Thinking Into Your Organization |
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FACE
TO FACE
LP: You made headlines last week when it was reported that Plug Power is slated to receive a sizeable investment from a Russian firm. You must be gratified by that vote of confidence. RS: Gratified and somewhat amazed. No one would have predicted a year ago that this would happen. And we didn’t go out seeking this investment. But it’s funny how the world works. Lots of pieces came together all of a sudden and somehow this little company has gone from a wisp of survival to actually being selected as the best in the world in its niche. More than anything, we feel affirmed that our preoccupation with trying to be a good company and trying to build a good culture while delivering a new technology has resulted in positive financial recognition. LP: These investors clearly believe in the future of hydrogen. But major infrastructural changes will have to occur before the hydrogen economy becomes a reality. In terms of mobility, bio-fuel-ready vehicles and electric hybrids are hitting the road even as we speak. Where would you say we stand relative to adoption of hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles? RS: It will probably be twenty years before hydrogen fuel cell vehicles become significant. But we are moving in the right direction and hybrid-electric vehicles (like the one I drive) are a necessary step in the move away from pure internal combustion engine systems. I agree with Amory Lovins, the CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who sees the transition occurring in three phases. The first move will be toward efficiency, the second move will be toward lighter weight vehicles, and the third move will be toward fuel cell vehicles. It won’t happen overnight. A complete turnover in our fleet could take 30 to 50 years. I think legislative and regulatory pressures will help move things along. Mandated improvement in corporate average fuel economy will drive people first to hybrid-electric, and then to lighter cars. And if California – followed by other states – passes legislation encouraging zero-level-emission vehicles, or “ZLEV’S,” that will force a growing number of people to go to fuel cell vehicles even more quickly. My bet is that transportation will go through these phases reluctantly at first, and then accelerate. LP: You’ve referred to our energy future as a mosaic. Can you tell us what you mean by that? RS: Well, very clearly we have a mosaic today. Every form of energy that we have originates with the sun, even down to nuclear, which comes from old suns, stars. When you burn fossil fuels, or dung from animals, wood, coal, peat, oil — you’re just burning old sunlight. Bio-fuels come from green materials that were nurtured by sunlight. And coal obviously, comes from old plants. Wind farms work because the sun has heated up air differentially and it’s circulating in order to reach equilibrium. Waves and tides are caused by winds, by the moon and the sun. Geo-thermal energy derives from the heat inside the earth’s core, which comes from radioactive materials slowly decaying, and those radioactive materials came from old stars or suns. So, it’s fascinating; you can’t get away from it. And I think what we’ll see will just be a shift in the mix. We’ll see more power going through solar arrays. We’ll see more wind farms, more geothermal, more bio-mass, perhaps more natural gas, which has a much shorter loop than say, coal and oil. But we’ll always have this mosaic that’s derived from sunlight at one time or another. Suggested further
reading: |
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Space is limited! Register before April 24 to secure your place and save $500 off the standard conference rate!
Pegasus
Conference Forums Bring You Action from the Trenches and
the Grassroots Future Search: Using the Wisdom of the Whole System to Create Shared Vision and Committed Action — Applications in an Education Setting, with Rick Lent, Ph.D., and Nancy Aronson, Ph.D. Partnering to Create Tomorrow’s Leaders, with Sayra Pinto, director of the Twin Cities Latino Coalition; Ed Cronin, Chief of Police, Fitchburg, MA; Daniel Asquino, Ph.D., President, Mt., Wachusett Community College; and other coalition partners Uncovering the Will to Create the Future We Want: U-Theory in Practice at Nissan, with Tracy Huston, Consultant, Global Executive Training, Nissan, and Sherry Immediato, President and Managing Director, Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Additionally, a diverse array of concurrent and pre-conference sessions will offer skill building opportunities in a number of focus areas including systems thinking, systems archetypes, simulation, dialogue, storytelling, and scenario planning, among others. We’ll examine lessons and questions from the business, education, nonprofit and healthcare sectors, including work ongoing at Shell, Verizon Dominica, Intuit, FDA, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and many more. Don’t
be the one who later says, “I
wish I had been there!” |
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LEARNING
LINKS So you’ve read The Fifth Discipline, attended the Pegasus “Systems Thinking in Action” Conference, bought simulation software, and created your first computer models. You’re excited—systemic thinking could solve so many of the problems you’ve experienced and offers so much potential to help your organization. But where do you start? How can you get your colleagues—and especially your boss—as excited as you are? How do you help your organization succeed over the long run? First, relax and take a deep breath. Then consider some lessons I’ve learned, as I’ve tried to advance the use of systems thinking in many different organizations over the past 15 or more years: Lesson 1: Except in rare circumstances, don’t tell your managers that they must adopt systems thinking. Lesson 2: Don’t do your work in a vacuum. Lesson 3: Respect the data. Lesson 4: Develop a knack for seeing patterns and recognizing likely underlying structures. Lesson 5: Remember that systems thinking is ultimately about helping people. Lesson 6: Plan on course corrections; systems thinking doesn’t end when you’ve got a model. Remember that you’ve just sold your organization on the importance of a systems view and on the importance of understanding feedback. Now it’s your turn to deal with feedback—feedback from the real world. Listen, observe, and reflect, and be willing to incorporate what you learn into the implementation. Now, take another
deep breath, stand up, and go make your organization and the world
better! Don’t sell systems thinking; be a systems thinker! Read the complete article or see The Systems Thinker, V14N7 (September 2003) Subscribe to The Systems Thinker |
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| Copyright 2006 Pegasus Communications. Leverage Points® can be freely forwarded by e-mail in its entirety. To obtain rights to distribute paper copies of, reproduce, or excerpt any part of Leverage Points, please contact permissions@pegasuscom.com. | ||||||||||||||
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VIDEO & AUDIO MEGA-SALE!
As
we continue to transition from the models
of the Machine Age and the Industrial Revolution
to the emerging models of what some call
the Systems Age and the Knowledge Economy,
we need to establish a “Declaration
of Interdependence” to guide and inspire
our work together. What self-evident truths
must we articulate that will enable us to
forge a sustainable future together? How
can groups from very different walks of
life come to agree on a common set of purposes
and practices? Daniel leads a generative
exploration of these questions toward creating
a synthesis of the whole conference experience.
In
this powerfully engaging
video, Peter Senge speaks
in plain, straight-to-the-point
language about crucial leadership
issues facing all organizations
as they work to create the
results they really care
about. From proposing alternative
roles for leaders that go
beyond the destructive hero-CEO
myth to underscoring the
central position of trust
and relationships in collective
endeavors, Senge zeros in on
pivotal organizational challenges
and points a way ahead for all
who see themselves as leaders.
In this gripping discussion,
Peter Senge illuminates the crucial role
of learning in any successful organizational
change effort and helps us understand ways
to get beyond frustrating barriers to learning.
He underscores the importance of focusing
on the human dimension in the workplace
and the remarkable capacity of inspired
people to work together in service of a
larger goal. Perhaps most important, he
dispels the illusion that leaders can spearhead
organizational change without being ready
to change themselves.
More
than 30 years ago, systems dynamicist Dennis
Meadows and his team began to examine the
consequences of growth on a finite planet,
using an understanding of complex systems,
sophisticated computer modeling, and timely
data. The video's clear explanations of
the dynamics of growth and sustainable development
make it a unique resource for businesses,
classrooms, and nonprofit organizations.
Roger
Saillant is president and CEO of 