The failure of systems thinking at General Motors
Read moreIn the past few weeks, since preparing my remarks for the Harvard class on systems thinking, I have been reflecting on why many large organizations don’t seem able to do it. Often, when I read in the news or listen to tales of corporate dysfunction, I am left thinking that a good dose of big picture thinking might have prevented or
Connecting systems thinking and leadership
Read moreHere is a concept that has become part of my worldview: Whatever broadens our vision about leadership, influence and how organizations work makes us more aware as managers, and better as systems thinkers. Looking back, I see a rich learning experience that I perhaps did not fully appreciate when I worked at Atari in 1982-1983. In fact, my thinking about how
More thoughts on systems thinking, based on my Atari experience
Read moreI have often said or written that we live life moving forward but understand it looking backward. As I wrote briefly last week, my time at Atari in the early 1980s taught me a great deal about the importance of systems thinking in organizations. Of course, I did not know this term at the time, and I believe the expression
Systems thinking for today’s workers and organizations
Read moreAs I wrote last time, it was great fun to go to Harvard and speak to a class on systems thinking, about my views on how we might connect this concept to leadership and personal storytelling. This week and next, I will put some of my thoughts down here. Since I have no formal training in the field, and since for
A visit to Harvard to talk about systems thinking
Read moreI ended the last post with the thought that theatre training and acting experience had helped me to become more of a “systems thinker”. By coincidence, this week I made my annual visit to Harvard University, where the theme of my lectures was “systems thinking”. It happened in the class of my friend and colleague Mark Esposito, and I was
Life lessons from the theatre
Read moreIn the last post, I said that I would write a something here about how I have come to see my theatre experience as useful in other arenas. Though I did not realize it then, with our traveling troupe I was learning lessons I would use in a variety of contexts the rest of my life. In addition, some of