Managing complex structures – how complex?

Since many years I have been working in and with organizations which is suffering from increasing complexity. The problem is usually not the complexity in itself but the inability of the top management to acknowledge the current level and understand that this particular degree of complexity require a different set of methods and skills. It … Continue reading Managing complex structures – how complex?

Where are the horizontal thinkers going? To the quality departments!!

There have been an interesting low intensity conversation about horizontal or complex thinking. (See e g Zenpundit post 1 and post 2, Enterprise Resilience blog post, Mapping Strategy blog post, Eide Neurolearning blog post as well as deeper analysis by Thomas P.M. Barnett. I believe this touch on a terribly important issue for the future: … Continue reading Where are the horizontal thinkers going? To the quality departments!!

Maslow turned upside down?

Sometimes I feel like we all live in an upside down world. When preparing a lecture I suddenly saw something that could illustrate this. Maslow's hierarchy of needs have been important for how social scientists and others have been looking at our society. If things really are upside down, why not try to turn the … Continue reading Maslow turned upside down?

Google Trends – to search a search engine

Google have released a new fascinating and probably controversial tool onto the world: Google Trends. By simply letting users search directly in the meta-data some of the higher level patterns of what people search for is out of the box. If you e g search for "united states", you get a list of regions from … Continue reading Google Trends – to search a search engine

Easter Island history revised?

After having read Jared Diamond's book Collapse, one of the stories of civilization collapse that sticks is the one about the people on Easter Island. I wrote about the book in futuramb blog in March last year (in Swedish). It is both puzzling and intriguing to ponder about what the people on Easter Island were … Continue reading Easter Island history revised?

CEO:s plans signals turbulence ahead?

Article in NetworkWorld says: In an IBM survey of 765 CEOs and top executives, 65% said they plan to radically change their companies in the next two years in response to growing competitive and market pressures. But it won't be easy: More than 80% stated that their organizations have not been very successful at managing … Continue reading CEO:s plans signals turbulence ahead?

Worldchanging through images

worldchanging.com is getting focus again, and this time by using catchy videos. I am usually teaching, talking and consulting around scenarios, and how they have the potential of changing the world. Go to the worldchanging.com campaign site and look at the film! I think of the film Koyaanisqatsi and sequels directly... From a methodological stand … Continue reading Worldchanging through images

Cartoon protests mirrored in the digital domain

As expected muslim hackers are active and mirroring the protest in the digital world. Roberto Preatoni from www.zone-h.org reports about and lists hundreds of sites been attacked, and the attacks seems to be continuing. This is just a confirmation that the digital world is just another plattform for our social activities. I commented about this … Continue reading Cartoon protests mirrored in the digital domain

The nature of the Muhammed cartoon protests

It is scary to see the rapid upscaling of the Muhammed cartoon conflict. Especially since I commented on it in my blog the other day as a possible sign of an ongoing mental shift in the Middle East. My concern then was searching for the uncertainties affecting the future oil price. Now the mentality shift … Continue reading The nature of the Muhammed cartoon protests

How the West is reacting to the Muhammed cartoon protests

After reading articles and blogs about the protests I would argue that the West's greatest enemy here is not the Islamic fundementalist movement but our own fundamental inability to understand that "common sense" is also a biased perspective. If you think common sense is a better, higher or more fundamental way of reasoning you are … Continue reading How the West is reacting to the Muhammed cartoon protests