February 25, 2021
As always, let’s start with one of the high-level patterns in our collection: the sources of knowledge or awareness in […]
February 18, 2021
This week we are looking at the dimension of time. Time is a central concept in all kinds of contexts, […]
February 11, 2021
Without further ado, let’s pick up where we left off last week! We ended the post on a series […]
February 4, 2021
We are now at the stage where we start to dig into the patterns and ask what they might […]
January 31, 2021
It is funny, when we think about networks, we think about groups, communities, systems, and other complex collections of interacting […]
January 28, 2021
Before going into the meat of this section, let’s talk about triads and dyads a little bit, and the representation […]
January 21, 2021
Almost every SenseMaker collection, no matter what it is, contains some garden-variety multiple-choice questions. These may appear simple, but they […]
January 14, 2021
This has been a year of experimentation in many things, including the report format. SenseMaker, despite its use for near-real-time […]
January 7, 2021
It is 2021, and many of us don’t know quite what that entails. Most were very glad to see the […]
June 18, 2020
I have been thinking a lot about climate change during the COVID-19 times (and so have many many many others). […]
March 1, 2019
The location of the Cynefin Retreat about Narrative in Organisations (Ireland, 18-21 March 2019) is specially chosen for its unique […]
April 16, 2015
In December 2012, I flew to Bratislava with Dave Snowden where we met with a roomful of smart, enthusiastic UNDPers […]
April 9, 2015
By now you will have read Dave Snowden’s welcome post concerning our new website, which we’re very pleased to say […]
December 8, 2014
I’m currently in Stockholm for the Adopting Agile workshop/think tank (it has flavours of both). This is event number four […]
November 6, 2014
One of the key things in understanding and managing a complex adaptive system is getting the granularity right. Things that […]
September 2, 2014
Summer's nearly over, and with it our Early Bird discount for the CSM course in Washington DC from the 29th […]
August 1, 2014
There are still seats available at the Two Day SenseMaker® Design course in Amsterdam held over 16-17 September 2014. Enjoy […]
July 19, 2014
Time to leave Singapore for Sydney but a busy morning. It started with a conversation on gaming and its use […]
June 3, 2014
I woke bright and early at the Management Centre in Bangor University to a view of the Menai Straits from […]
May 29, 2014
Creating and Leading a Resilient Safety Culture is our new training course that brings together resilience thinking with complexity and […]
April 14, 2014
Just back from a great week in NYC participating in #LeanUX14. Off to Portland today after an all too brief […]
March 25, 2014
I gave the opening keynote at the Agile conference in Brno today. A good audience in that they paid attention […]
March 25, 2014
It’s always a delight to visit the Big Apple and I’m looking forward to being there again April 6-13. I’ve […]
January 9, 2014
I don't get to Halifax as often as I would like. It has been one of my favourite places since […]
December 14, 2013
In one of the breakouts today a few of us spent three sessions working on a wider education initiative around […]
December 13, 2013
I finally replaced my iPad last night having given up on the original being found. I was still in […]
October 2, 2013
It’s only working with a diversity of many perspectives can we get objectively closer to a more authentic sense […]
August 2, 2013
This past weekend the community I call home, the West Kootenay area of British Columbia, saw an unfortunate accident in […]
June 10, 2013
The wonderful weekend brunches are a real delight here in Melbourne. The breakfast culture is very strong and is similar […]
April 26, 2013
A couple years ago I had the pleasure to meet Ryan Martens, Founder and CTO of Rally Software, in beautiful […]
April 24, 2013
A flying visit to Amsterdam (well train in from Nice then a flight home) to speak at KM Europe. It […]
April 16, 2013
I’ve been using the complex domain model for some time now since I first published it. One of my main […]
March 31, 2013
Over the last three days and nights I have watched Philip Madoc's wonderful warts and all portrayal of Lloyd George […]
February 12, 2013
Monday 11 Feb was a holiday in the province of British Columbia, Canada, as it was the newly declared “Family […]
February 10, 2013
For many years I've argued that expertise is a mixture of training and experience; knowledge combined with practice. My […]
November 29, 2012
I have been quite busy of late with travel, proposal writing, and working collaboratively on some joint offerings. Hence the […]
November 16, 2012
I landed in Auckland this morning from Singapore in the first and shortest (9 hours) of five long red eye […]
November 6, 2012
A couple weeks ago my wife and I had an opportunity to become participants in a wonderful initiative – the […]
October 23, 2012
There is a peculiar populist product of our post-modern age which argues that chaos is the 'archetypal state of everything' […]
October 22, 2012
Just in case anyone is worried I'm not planning the death of a King, but it is a great quote […]
October 22, 2012
One of the things that frustrates me about booking venues for workshops and training sessions is the way event coordinators […]
October 18, 2012
I had no formal duties at KM World today but I enjoyed Dave Weinberger as always, but with two slight […]
October 15, 2012
Regular readers of this blog (yes I know I have been irregular of late in posting) will know that I […]
September 19, 2012
Last week I enjoyed a short business trip within the same time zone. I traveled to Seattle and decided to […]
September 7, 2012
The recent Melbourne and Auckland Advanced training sessions have given me a deeper perspective on the Consensus-Coherence framework that is […]
August 30, 2012
I'm enroute home after a business trip that had me in Singapore, Melbourne, and Auckland. Although Singapore is starting to […]
August 29, 2012
Regular readers of this blog will know that Cynefin and its domains are going through a period of flux at […]
August 17, 2012
Someone suggested widecasting as an alternative to sidecasting yesterday so I am trying it out in the title here. Not […]
August 16, 2012
Late this afternoon I was tending to some errands with the family ahead of being away on a two-week business […]
August 16, 2012
Today is a travel day and the longest leg of my journey will be starting soon. In about an hour […]
June 15, 2012
For the first few years of my work with Cognitive Edge, the Cynefin framework, and complexity in general, I did […]
June 2, 2012
One of the highlights of this years festival was the presence of moral philosopher Mary Midgley. Her book on Wickedness […]
May 18, 2012
I just completed a two week business trip and my last two stops were New York and Amsterdam. Two cities […]
May 6, 2012
The end point of the Thames Walk is the flood barrier at Greenwich, but we faced two unexpected barriers on […]
April 7, 2012
Yesterday I was traveling from NYC to Vancouver after spending the week in New York delivering our Practitioners Foundations course. […]
March 15, 2012
During the SenseMaker® day at the Practitioner Foundations course I delivered in Toronto with Terry Miller, I decided to open […]
March 3, 2012
Welcome to our new site! Please note that we are offering a discount for the next 3 months for people […]
March 2, 2012
St David's Day is the national festival of Wales. There are parades, concerts and festivals to celebrate the name day […]
February 27, 2012
Having landed from Singapore early in the morning and suffered the longest four minutes in rugby history I was in […]
February 26, 2012
A timely warning from Dilbert today, which should serve as a warning to us all. Like all good cartoons it […]
February 21, 2012
I'm back in Singapore for a week working on a portfolio of projects building on work over the past decade. […]
February 14, 2012
As part of the preparation for CalmAlpha this week I've been reviewing some of the general principles of complexity in […]
February 14, 2012
The thirst for easy fixes to the challenges of time management appears unslakable. I have no doubt that for some, […]
February 12, 2012
Rugby is a winter sport, but its not an arctic one. The news that France v Ireland was called off […]
February 11, 2012
I walked through this arch tonight to watch a rugby match for the first time since the summer of 2009. […]
February 9, 2012
I may buy this T-Shirt as its a great slogan. As it happens I was working on intervention strategy in […]
February 8, 2012
How does a successful entrepreneurial organisation deal with operational growth pains without losing its ‘soul?’ I have been working with […]
February 7, 2012
About 12 months ago, I attended an early morning meeting whose sole purpose was to approve a short list of […]
February 5, 2012
David Griffiths indulged in a little head banging this morning, and give he is in the same state of nervous […]
February 4, 2012
I have a semi-allergic reaction to sounds bites that appear to lack thought before propagation. Its a part of my […]
February 3, 2012
No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a […]
January 24, 2012
I've always argued that that Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale should be added to the cannon of key dystopian novels. […]
January 24, 2012
I had a fantastic day Sunday last; good lunch, stimulating diverse conversation, rugby in Wales, and all in the company […]
January 23, 2012
Today I met up with our current guest blogger Iwan Jenkins at the Anchor Inn and following a good lunch […]
January 22, 2012
We passed the half way mark today on our journey from the source to the mouth of the Thames. We […]
January 21, 2012
It's not often that I agree with Richard Dawkins, but his article in today's New Statesman on “reasonable doubt” is […]
January 10, 2012
It is very important to have a clear picture of your starting point, particularly when solving complex problems, but it […]
January 9, 2012
In a recent conversation during the diagnosis stage of a strategy project, I was asked whether I would, “put my […]
January 5, 2012
A number of threads on the Cognitive Edge blog highlight the frustration and difficulty in getting companies to use new […]
January 3, 2012
For those of us who travel extensively, one of the most valued Christmas gifts is the opportunity to take time […]
December 31, 2011
It will be difficult to apply ‘probe-sense-respond’ in business because the environment subconsciously prohibits experimentation. That would be my conclusion […]
December 13, 2011
An alternative title for this piece could have been “Narrative research—a practical introduction.” As stated previously, most of my clients […]
December 12, 2011
The winner is Mr Steve Dawkins, and a copy of Obliquity is in the post. Thank you too for all […]
December 9, 2011
I’m not sure if I always get the whole ‘change management’ thing. I have been in full-time employment for over […]
December 9, 2011
It seems that this won’t be the last post after all. In the next week or so I will post […]
December 8, 2011
My initial contact with Cognitive Edge was stimulated by a question; does anyone out there have experience of applying a […]
December 5, 2011
I am frequently asked to demonstrate to my commercially-minded, tight-budgeted, hard-nosed, doubting-Thomased clients that there is profitable proof of pragmatic […]
December 2, 2011
In ‘Can you handle the truth – part I’ I referred to the conceptual importance of feedback loops. In part […]
December 2, 2011
In business we spend a considerable amount of time discussing where we are going. Yet when we introduced to other […]
November 30, 2011
Last year I read ‘The Ghost of the Executed Engineer’ by Loren Graham. The book focuses on Peter Palchinsky, a […]
November 29, 2011
I have come to think of the Simple domain as the Enabling domain. However, most of our clients enjoy the […]
November 28, 2011
I had tired of the grouchiness of the Air Canada staff that welcomes you into their lounge at Pearson Airport, […]
October 25, 2011
So what does all this add up to in terms of the use of Cynefin and Sensemaker ideas in the […]
October 24, 2011
There is a trick I pull in workshops that deal with models. I start by putting a toy elephant on […]
October 17, 2011
My last blog was sent from the Air New Zealand transfer lounge in LA. This one is sent from Geneva. […]
October 13, 2011
There is strong tendency in the evaluation field right now to treat everything as if it were complex. In my […]
October 12, 2011
Let’s recap. The evaluation field tends to use things called “Logic Models” to assess and determine the “worth” of interventions. […]
October 11, 2011
One of the more fascinating applications of the Cynefin framework is dynamically plotting the unfolding of events as they occur. […]
October 11, 2011
Kia ora tatou, Over the years I’ve written much about Cynefin and Sensemaker, but mostly aimed at those who know […]
October 7, 2011
I recently came across a book written by Eduardo Porter: The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We […]
September 28, 2011
Several of you probably have come across the posting’s title or a variation of it. Today’s topic of interest is […]
September 15, 2011
I am still writing up my thoughts on SenseMaker and sustainability that will be my last blog. And so, in […]
September 5, 2011
Little has been written on how to develop a process based on the logic and method of SenseMaker. I remember […]
September 1, 2011
As I mentioned, 2011 is my year of action research on SenseMaker. I’ve got six cases to draw on (various […]
August 27, 2011
The fun of guest blogs lies in their diversity. I’ve really enjoyed Tom’s philosophical reflections. In contrast, my blogs emanate […]
August 21, 2011
My projects have got my full attention again and so I am signing off on the Guest Blog. Many thanks […]
August 16, 2011
I’d like to comment on Keith’s comment about my notion in my first guest post that ideas in themselves are […]
August 14, 2011
Many thanks to readers of the Guest Blog for initial comments (I write better when I have someone to talk […]
August 12, 2011
In a new Vanity Fair article on the role of the Germans in the international financial crisis, Michael Lewis, the […]
August 11, 2011
In my role as change manager, people in a company inevitably talk to me about what is not working in […]
August 9, 2011
I have finally gotten around to reading a lovely novel recommended to me by a client in the financial business […]
August 8, 2011
I’m looking forward to blogging on Cognitive Edge for the next couple of weeks, not knowing what to expect, and […]
June 21, 2011
On 14 April 2010 a small volcano erupted in Iceland, and before people could even pronounce the name Eyjafjallajökull, all […]
June 2, 2011
The other day while working with a group of managers on succession planning and development, background stories emerged that hinted […]
May 31, 2011
This weekend was a holiday here in the U.S. I took a day trip 200 miles north to Mono Lake […]
May 26, 2011
Clifford Geertz, the cultural anthropologist who influenced the practice of symbolic anthropology, wrote “analysis, then, is sorting out the structures […]
May 24, 2011
In my last post I discussed how leadership could be viewed as interactions that create attractors. These are usually tactical, […]
May 12, 2011
It’s out there!!! I am not a blogger. As a person, I possess no desire to publish a web log […]
April 25, 2011
I thought I might finish these posts with sharing an offline exchange between myself and colleagues working on education policy. […]
April 20, 2011
Yesterday the Institute for Government released a series of reports on policy making in the UK. What is interesting about […]
April 18, 2011
After an uneventful flight from Heathrow I am back in Canada, a little jet lagged and still processing the last […]
April 15, 2011
We are in London the next few days. I could rant about how the hotels here don’t get that people […]
April 13, 2011
We have spent the day with a number of Finnish public sector people. I am always touched by the warmth […]
April 5, 2011
We talk a lot about sense making and we use it to understand patterns within apparent noise. I want to […]
March 31, 2011
This concept comes from Steve Haeckel, a colleague of Dave at IBM. Know-why knowledge is knowledge of the system and […]
March 26, 2011
First of two mini posts today…… As I write this an estimated 300,000 people will be marching in Central London […]
March 24, 2011
A quick post from picturesque Durham station en-route to Lincoln. One cathedral city to another. A big moment of excitement […]
March 21, 2011
Last week was extremely busy and so my blogging was curtailed. This despite having nightmares about a bearded Celt and […]
March 15, 2011
Is it just me or does anyone else find ‘biogs’ embarrassing and a real pain to construct? When you are […]
February 27, 2011
If you squint at the diagram while standing on our head you might see a reflection of Otto Scharmer’s “Theory […]
February 26, 2011
In my previous post I described the paradox of knowledge as a chute that ends in a safe landing in […]
February 26, 2011
We now have in hand four ingredients around which we can construct our recipe – Organizational Learning, Tension, Potential and […]
February 24, 2011
I’ll use the term general management to distinguish the common, daily practice of work management from the other role based […]
February 24, 2011
The tension I’ve found is a powerful force, it is felt quite strongly by some. Among them are some of […]
February 22, 2011
Looking back over my notes and doodlings, I spent a lot of time at first in exploring the domains. I […]
January 30, 2011
One final post before I pass the baton on to someone else. The European gang of Cognitive Edge practitioners/students/aspirers has […]
January 29, 2011
It’s easy to forget, when you’ve been through an accreditation course and done some exercises here and there and are […]
January 27, 2011
Always a risk, blogging on something you’re reading about when you haven’t finished the book yet. The author may return […]
January 26, 2011
One of the elements, of course, from The Future, Backwards that contrasts with standard visioning – it’s not about some […]
January 26, 2011
Feeling slightly sheepish today – two discussions yesterday with people about the potential of SenseMaker. One great conversation that lead […]
January 23, 2011
A diversion into popular culture today – but one with a different take on storytelling than the usual. In the […]
January 9, 2011
It is with great regret that I report today the passing of Gerry Rafferty. Gerry co-wrote and sang the song […]
November 8, 2010
Reactions on how to solve the financial crisis of 2008/2009 produced no real, innovative solutions – just more of the […]
October 9, 2010
Although one can get often trapped by complex tools (thinking that they are ‘holistic’), there are two kinds of ‘tools’ […]
October 8, 2010
Two little children were talking at the school yard of a mountain village of Greece, fifty years ago. The one […]
October 7, 2010
In Greek mythology the three Fates were: Atropos (the inevitable), Clotho (the spin of the thread of life) and Lachesis […]
October 6, 2010
The four classical management functions are: planning, organizing, directing/leading, and controlling. They are in a rather linear sequence, along with […]
October 5, 2010
Two years ago, a Greek NGO organized and carried out a community consultation project that aimed to shed light on […]
October 3, 2010
Today we spent the day as a family, along with some other couples with kids at the age of my […]
October 2, 2010
As it is has been argued elsewhere, archetypal models aim to provide paradigms for human behavior and supply meaning and […]
October 1, 2010
Some months ago, a friend had raised an interesting question that was derived from Sophocles’ tragedy “Aias” (Ajax). Ajax was […]
September 30, 2010
Complexity theorists have often indicated that complex social problems appear intractable because they are approached in a linear and simplistic […]
September 29, 2010
Referring to the domain of disorder, Dave and Cynthia argue that “often in a group (…) individuals compete to interpret […]
September 28, 2010
Early this year, acknowledging our personal share of responsibility for the bad fiscal situation, the Greeks were ready to begin […]
September 27, 2010
As I was saying yesterday, during the last five years, I have used the Cynefin model as the basic template […]
September 26, 2010
Hi, I am Stefanos Michiotis. I live nearby Athens, Greece and work as an independent trainer and consultant. For the […]
September 25, 2010
A professional colleague of mine spends one month of every year with her partner in a part of Australia known […]
September 24, 2010
One of the things I love to play with is perspective. I see Cognitive Edge has at least a few […]
September 22, 2010
My 13 year and soon to be 15 year old daughters have completely different personalities, but as they grow up […]
September 22, 2010
The best blogs I’ve read have a good dose of reality as we connect bits in our lives up with […]
September 21, 2010
We’re all human so finding any little advantage that helps us to get an edge is worth a shot. I […]
September 20, 2010
Struggling with writing is an occupational hazard for some people and more so if the writer cares about the reader. […]
September 19, 2010
Sometimes a number of factors such as postgraduate study and a shift in career focus conspire to make you mixing […]
September 17, 2010
Multidisciplinary work should almost be the natural order of things for some disciplines, though reading some of the literature there […]
September 16, 2010
Celebrating a significant birthday in the last few weeks fits with having a bit of a rethink of what is […]
September 15, 2010
If you’ve done a bit of travelling, you tend to pick up a few stories from interesting places. One which […]
September 14, 2010
I’d like to explore the idea of narrative not being limited to words or text. It makes sense really, as […]
September 11, 2010
A few weeks ago I spent a day with other European Cognitive Edge practitioners who got together at Luton Airport […]
September 9, 2010
We have a wonderful set of guides at Coventry Cathedral who add a tremendous amount of value for visitors by […]
September 8, 2010
Over a year ago Dave Snowden wrote a blog entitled “The occult insignificance of meaningless numbers” in which he stated […]
September 7, 2010
I remember my first time in a supermarket in the USA, it was over 20 years ago and I was […]
September 5, 2010
I’m working on a meatier blog for the next few days, so tonight just a link with minimal comment to […]
September 2, 2010
Dave Snowden blogged recently on the importance of context and said None of us know how we would act in […]
September 1, 2010
It’s been a long day and I offer a little light relief in the shape of this YouTube video. For […]
August 31, 2010
I’m just back from two days at Greenbelt, a Christian arts festival held every year at the Cheltenham race course […]
August 30, 2010
Hello, it’s a pleasure to be Guest Blogger here on the Cognitive Edge site! To get my stint off the […]
August 27, 2010
I think Complexity Theory is great and is certainly a more relevant approach than how people have been treating human […]
August 27, 2010
Ive been an artist and designer all my life dabbling in drawing, paint, sculpture, animation, interaction, music, etc.., more recently […]
August 26, 2010
So I was just at Bojangles… which by the way is an AWESOME Cajun/Southern fast food restaurant here in the […]
August 26, 2010
Maybe my best advice would be “Be the Chaos!”? Or maybe according to the Cynefin framework, it would be “Be […]
August 25, 2010
A lot of people might say that we act according to our culture, or that it is a part of […]
August 24, 2010
I heard this hinted on a few times before, but never a really good argument or reflection… How many people […]
August 23, 2010
I think that a lot of what people perceive as problems stem from a few simple notions regarding the confusion […]
August 20, 2010
http://c5corp.com/research/ontology.shtml I would recommend reading any research done by this group, but this article especially regarding “autopoesis” and “ontogeny”… Good […]
August 19, 2010
Symbolic Interactionism (Herbert Blumer): 1. “Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things.” […]
August 18, 2010
“figure it out”… a sort of tag line… it includes both figuring things out as in you are the constructor […]
August 16, 2010
Hello all, I hope to post at least an entry a day during my time on here… ive always thought […]
August 14, 2010
Reading David’s blog entry of August 12th on overhearing conversations, I thought about a kiwi take on this. If this […]
August 14, 2010
You know an airport lounge is a strange place. I’m stuck in Toronto again for four hours between a flight […]
August 12, 2010
Just a short entry today and I blame it on my latest “toy” … I am a “born again mind […]
August 9, 2010
Over the past few days another example of spontaneous order came to mind. I live in a small village that […]
August 7, 2010
The work of Fredrick Hayek has been of interest to me since I worked on my PhD. In a round […]
August 5, 2010
A recent article from the Observer talked about the availability of various services that “manage the internet footprint that people […]
August 3, 2010
I mentioned in my introduction that since I turned 40 I have challenged myself to move outside my comfort zone. […]
July 31, 2010
… ok, not really. It’s about half eleven on a Saturday morning now and the final day of my stint […]
July 22, 2010
Over the past month I have had a chance to delve into facilitating anecdote circles for a project. I did […]
July 21, 2010
I have not been spoonfed, whether literally or figuratively, since I was, say, three and a half. Even as a […]
July 20, 2010
My favourite word since childhood is ‘why’. When overused in childhood it is a cause of exasperation or amusement but […]
July 7, 2010
Back in March I started a series on the origins of Cynefin. The first post described the original inspiration from […]
July 6, 2010
I discovered Cognitive Edge and the Cynefin Model after learning, studying, applying and dabbling in a number of other models […]
June 16, 2010
In 2010 wikis are widespread, a common and practical tool for distributed content creation, language and shared value emergence. The […]
June 14, 2010
Well, hello! I’ve been away at a conference for the last week so hopefully I can make up for it […]
June 4, 2010
May 30, 2010
Haven’t blogged for a couple of days because I took time out to relax on the glorious Hawkesbury River, which […]
May 23, 2010
I would like to introduce myself. I am Professor Liz Fulop from the Griffith Business School (GBS) at Griffith University, […]
May 21, 2010
Yesterday, I had a great meeting with Søren Raaschou, who is an accredited Cognitive Edge practitioner, just like me. We […]
May 15, 2010
Another passion of mine is the French game “Petanque“, and today I’ve been playing it all day long. Again. I […]
May 13, 2010
Friday last week the Danish newspaper “Kristelig Dagblad” brought a whole page about people pursuing their dreams to make a […]
May 10, 2010
I’m about to bag my third job. Not in a row. No, at the same time. Besides running my own […]
May 8, 2010
As we suspected a hung parliament which means a period of negotiation starting with the Conservative Cameron and the Liberal […]
May 6, 2010
The politicians are arriving at their final destinations for polling day in the UK, and the electorate will begin voting […]
May 2, 2010
No phone has turned up so I am now in the process of getting another one with all the associated […]
April 28, 2010
Today I thought I might be a bit more learned in this blog and then the world turned upside down […]
April 27, 2010
We have now had 2 national TV debates between the leaders of the three main parties and surprisingly the also […]
April 26, 2010
Well where do we go from here – a phrase we are hearing all around us in the UK as […]
April 23, 2010
Continuing on from from my last post I’m wondering how culture impacts how knowledge gets used in the workplace. When […]
April 23, 2010
I’m up early this morning and looking out the windows over the grounds of abandoned fireworks factory next to my […]
April 21, 2010
Knowledge Management is culture specific. How a group interacts, chooses to include and exclude members, how to express importance or […]
April 19, 2010
This continues on from a post in late February when the Toyota quality problem was all over the news, see […]
April 17, 2010
This posting is derived from an earlier post from my Baoman’s blog. This is based on a much more simplified […]
April 13, 2010
In knowledge management there is quite a lot of interest and use of anthropological and ethnographic methodologies. It is important […]
April 10, 2010
I’m very happy to do this CE guest blogging for the next two weeks. I started blogging earlier this year […]
April 6, 2010
I am not sure why I have become intolerant to “happy holidays” as a greeting for our special religious periods. […]
April 2, 2010
The story of the water company engineers has always interested me. I expect most of you have heard Dave speak […]
March 30, 2010
I have in recent times noticed significant discussion around expertise and the role of the expert as a deeply experienced […]
March 28, 2010
In the past week or so I have had the privilege of meeting ad talking with some extraordinary young Australians […]
March 22, 2010
One of the areas we explored at some length in the recent practitioner conversation in Melbourne, related to the skills […]
March 18, 2010
In one of my earlier lives, I undertook assignments in workplace reform in some of our traditional and highly unionised […]
March 17, 2010
I live with my 3 dogs on 4 acres… and need someone on site who can look after things when […]
March 15, 2010
As I am nearing my 40th year of self employment, being a disruptive technology is a helpful notion – especially […]
March 14, 2010
I grew up with jigsaw puzzles – my mother was disappointed when a birthday or Christmas passed without a new […]
March 11, 2010
In our work at the Foundation, we have developed a language of our own with phrases like “speaking Greek to […]
March 9, 2010
When I was a statistician, I had almost complete professional freedom, as the people I worked for or with did […]
March 8, 2010
When my daughter was two or three years old, she asked for a story one night, and of course, being […]
March 4, 2010
Well, I suppose a lapsed statistician is a more accurate description of my current status in the field of statistics […]
March 3, 2010
In our work at the Foundation, we have experienced one example after the other of happy coincidence. We would go […]
March 1, 2010
The last year or so has been a fascinating roller-coaster ride of excitement and frustration as a small team of […]
February 25, 2010
The main thing I’m supposed to be doing as a guest blogger this week is reflecting on how accreditation courses […]
February 24, 2010
As part of this reflective exercise, I’ve been going through a lot of old notes from the early days of […]
February 23, 2010
More loose, unstable thoughts that need their own contextualization. What’s most interesting to me about the Cynefin model is that […]
February 22, 2010
While most converts to the new science argue that complexity theory is a better way of looking at virtually anything, […]
February 21, 2010
I was at a dialogue yesterday in Pasadena hosted by the Business Renaissance Institute. Like BRI, my interest in “spirituality […]
February 20, 2010
So I’ve enjoyed the last three days in San Diego with Michael Cheveldave, Craig Horangic and a diverse dozen participants […]
February 17, 2010
How does an organization know what it knows? That question drives a lot of interest in knowledge management. It drives […]
February 15, 2010
As a writer and consultant, my work straddles the realms of organizational knowledge and learning (which often seem mutually exclusive) […]
February 14, 2010
I’m supposed to start guest blogging Sunday, but it is still Saturday night where I am. A few hours ago, […]
February 9, 2010
My first two Future Backwards facilitations were done small scale, for friends and for free. They gave me the confidence […]
February 8, 2010
One pattern we saw in early SenseMaker projects was challenge and (on occasion) rejection of results by the end client. […]
February 6, 2010
Having spent a couple of hours in the dentist’s chair this morning, I feel like Faceache (from Buster, one of […]
February 4, 2010
The past week has been a major mix of approaches, headsets and sectors. I’ve run a masterclass on Internal Communications, […]
February 1, 2010
It’s a little daunting to step up to take the microphone following on from Russell. I am, of necessity, going […]
January 13, 2010
There are more colors in nature than in any size box of crayons. Yet, with a box of eight crayons, […]
January 6, 2010
If you don’t know what the term cargo cult means, you must. The stylized version of the story behind the […]
December 30, 2009
I’ve just recently decided to get started using Twitter, which I don’t completely understand yet, but most likely because most […]
December 11, 2009
How can a man fail to finish a fortnight of blogging without a comment on the worlds’ number one golfer? […]
December 10, 2009
How could I finish this fortnight as a guest blogger without tackling the two juiciest issues of the week. So […]
December 9, 2009
I wondered today if I was alone in a futile search for the opportunity to make up my own mind […]
December 7, 2009
I was assailed at the airport the other day with a diabolically difficult choice, Dunkin Doughnuts, Crispy Creams, the ones […]
December 7, 2009
About once a day I make the fundamental error of either turning on the radio and hearing a news broadcast […]
December 6, 2009
For years I have seriously and semi systematically read the right books, the ones everyone recommends, the ones with really […]
December 5, 2009
For my sins ‘ what a perfectly stupid phrase’ I am an involved in executive education. Once we ran workshops […]
December 4, 2009
Sometimes I find myself climbing on board a aircraft and looking at the seating, I can see and then feel […]
December 1, 2009
As your guest blogger I am indulging my various prejudices and idiosyncratic concerns. Today its problem solving incompetence! Seems to […]
November 30, 2009
I notice as I read other people’s blogs, that I am essentially an antisocial creature, not necessarily a total disadvantage […]
November 29, 2009
One of the experiences we have had with narrative capture involves the process of persuading people to actually go into […]
November 25, 2009
I have been using SenseMaker™ for a while now and am still amazed at how some think that it will […]
November 22, 2009
Last night I travelled the well worn path back to Canberra for the next Accreditation course. Whilst we had a […]
November 19, 2009
As I complete final preparations for the next Cognitive Edge Accreditation course which I am co-facilitating with Steve and Viv […]
November 18, 2009
Having been exposed to complexity and its strong connection with the natural world, I am now always taking a camera […]
November 17, 2009
One of the biggest challenges with senior executives we face is getting them to understand that dealing with complex issues […]
November 16, 2009
These days I am more aware of the importance of context than ever – especially when it comes to dealing […]
November 15, 2009
It is great to have been asked to be a guest blogger for Cognitive Edge! I thought it worthwhile sharing […]
November 6, 2009
I had a particular identification with Dave’s “The chef & the recipe book user” blog. I don’t think it should […]
October 16, 2009
Brunelleschi or other architects of the renaissance did not set out to design spandrels, those curved triangular areas between the […]
October 16, 2009
Psychology, mass media research, and even behavioral economics have of late become very interested in the phenomenon called priming or […]
October 14, 2009
Under the classical, mechanstic paradigm, identities were delimited by crisp, sharp edges — crisply defined conceptual boundaries, if you will. […]
October 14, 2009
Today’s front page of the Wall St Journal has a hilarious article on the serious debate in France concerning whether […]
October 10, 2009
I guess Nobels also go for hope. I guess, too, that just as there are sins of omission there are […]
October 8, 2009
Are the following incompatible? 1. Manufacturers and their sales force want the very “design of everyday things” to point to […]
October 7, 2009
I love October. Tis the season of Nobel, MacArthur, and Booker awards — celebrations of true accomplishments not celebrity. And […]
October 5, 2009
I just learned that the very concept of blackmail didn’t really exist prior to the 19th century. Before the rise […]
October 4, 2009
Or is it just Cuban complexity? I’m currently consumed with getting the word out about Complejidad 2010, the 5th biennial […]
October 3, 2009
One approach to making education dangerous is to borrow from complexity principles, and begin with humility regarding the path towards […]
October 3, 2009
The U.S. education system is broken. The data are clear, and those with means continue to flee the system – […]
October 1, 2009
Atop the ancient fortress at Dun Aengus, the Bride and I were nearly alone. (Travel tip: When visiting the Aran […]
September 26, 2009
I’ve been titling the last few posts in terms of how context can shift over time. This is not intended […]
September 25, 2009
Raise a glass, when you get a chance, to T.B. Naylor, who, one day in 1891, found himself or herself […]
September 24, 2009
When you visit Knowth, you stand amidst “passage tombs,” most likely built over 6,000 years ago. Surrounded by massive kerbstones […]
September 22, 2009
My son-in-law recently directed me to a resource that spoke highly of “manual labor,” as a gentle admonition to me. […]
September 21, 2009
“I could never do your job, Dad. When I leave work, I actually clock out. Ca-chunk, and I can go […]
September 20, 2009
Well, greetings! Adding a bit to the cheeky bio above: My professional biography includes eight years in the U.S. Air […]
September 15, 2009
I’ve just had the experience of upgrading the operating system on my mac, and coming from a Microsoft background, I […]
September 8, 2009
I spent a bit of time today playing around with a programming language that I’m not overly familiar with as […]
September 7, 2009
I’m currently living in the UK and have now been here for just over 4 years. While in general it […]
September 2, 2009
A good blog by Michael Indinopulis, “Enterprise 2.0: Skip the Pilot” introduces a nice complex notion. His actual premise is […]
September 1, 2009
I’m on vacation in Wisconsin, with a little time to catch up on reading and blogging at the local Internet […]
August 28, 2009
I took a day off to go to the beach with my friend Pam yesterday. We’ve been taking these days […]
August 26, 2009
I spent most of my career working for a company that was full of smart, independent thinkers who were difficult […]
August 24, 2009
I’m happy to be back here guest-blogging on the Cognitive Edge. I thought it would be good to start my […]
August 21, 2009
This has been an exciting week for us. We’re in the final stages of an exciting project where we’re using […]
August 18, 2009
I’m in two minds about this slide deck by Netflix – Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture. On […]
August 17, 2009
I found this link on a friend’s Facebook post. It’s by no means a complete list, but it’s interesting to […]
August 14, 2009
Ever since I heard Dave speaking on identities, specifically in the context of understanding the behavior of customers, employees etc, […]
August 11, 2009
I really enjoy the title quote by G.C. Lichtenberg. I also think it’s quite true. In fact, the more we […]
August 10, 2009
This is my second opportunity to be a CE Guest Blogger – having just returned from a week’s vacation, I’m […]
August 6, 2009
I’m well into my fourth day here in LA, and our hotel has just been taken over by various Europeans, […]
August 6, 2009
I’m currently being exposed to the ‘joys’ of Disney and my girls of course are enjoying the whole experience. Back […]
August 3, 2009
My apologies, it’s been a few days since my last guest blog entry, I’m on the move again. This time […]
July 20, 2009
Well having survived a night in the hotel room with a 7 year old who just couldn’t sleep, and an […]
July 20, 2009
Well I might be in Paris with all its attractions and distractions, including good coffee, haute cuisine – oh and […]
July 16, 2009
Well my girls discovered a new time in their lives today, and were amazed that there are actually two 5 […]
July 13, 2009
This is my first blog for Cognitive Edge, so welcome to my thoughts and musings! An interesting and challenging couple […]
July 10, 2009
Yesterday I had the privilege to attend a selected meeting of directors of hospitals and other relevant cure and care […]
July 7, 2009
Today I have run a workshop with some great technicians in the field of orthopedic instruments. A management team comes […]
July 3, 2009
Yesterday a had a very interesting “engagement” with a parking ticket machine. I visited the ministry of Health Care and […]
June 30, 2009
I started my first blog end of March last year. As a market researcher I’m obsessed with figures. As a […]
June 14, 2009
It is my last day as a guest blog. Also this has been my first blogging experience… I found it […]
June 13, 2009
June 11, 2009
This morning I have taken the plane to Aberdeen for work. Airports are just such strange places, are the places […]
June 10, 2009
Today I have been house bound as I have the flu (or a really bad cold, not sure how you […]
June 8, 2009
Sorry for the silence at the week end…. It was actually a quite difficult week-end as my son (who has […]
June 6, 2009
What is wrong with us…. This is just an un-believable story… http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8084972.stmI do not know if these kind of things […]
June 4, 2009
I just finished reading the Road by Cormac McCarthy, actually I just finished listening to it, as I bought it […]
June 3, 2009
I got back from London late last night… Too tired to blog again. London is a really “strange” place. London […]
June 2, 2009
On the train to London today for some internal meetings… I must say I do not share Dave “love for […]
June 1, 2009
On Friday I was watching “Have I got News from you” a satiric program on the BBC where comedians comments […]
May 31, 2009
Hi All, This is my first time blogging…. So, let’s start and se how it goes… We just got back […]
May 29, 2009
I know the theory of goal-setting, but it’s a very different thing to live it. As mentioned in a previous […]
May 28, 2009
You know how it is with advice – you love to give it and avoid taking it. However, on a […]
May 26, 2009
The university at which I work is on the banks of the Swan River, a broad, calm stretch of water […]
May 25, 2009
Did I miss something? Are management and teambuilding games seriously out of favour? Was there a whole debate that happened […]
May 22, 2009
If you are interested in the interplay between virtual communities and action in the real world have a look at […]
May 21, 2009
I was struck by the allusion that Dave Snowden and Mary Boone used in their November 2007 Harvard Business Review […]
May 20, 2009
Although I have been working with Cognitive Edge techniques for the last 5 years, I have never had an opportunity […]
May 19, 2009
I live in one of the more isolated cities in the world. Perth in Western Australia is a city of […]
May 18, 2009
I just wanted to sneak in a quick thankyou and an invitation to those who read my guest blog over […]
May 15, 2009
I want to relate a story from the OD trenches that speaks to the simplicity and power of anecdotes and […]
May 12, 2009
Back to my hometown of Rossland for a moment. Of the 1500 or so houses that make up this mountain […]
May 8, 2009
Nothing quite like finalizing plans for a flu pandemic to cast a light on biased approaches to planning and action. […]
May 4, 2009
Greetings all. I’ve been looking forward to my upcoming role as Cog Edge’s guest blogger. To jump right in: One […]
April 29, 2009
There has been in the last decade much emphasis in American strategic thinking on technological network, following the work of […]
April 23, 2009
In my first post I alluded to my Twitter experiment and how it had been an eye opener for me […]
April 20, 2009
It is a great honor for me to be asked to be the Cognitive Edge Guest Blogger this fortnight. I […]
April 18, 2009
Thank you for reading. I had never blogged before and I must say that two weeks is way too short […]
April 16, 2009
Perhaps people reading my posts at CE’s guest blog now think that I have an obsession with environment and such. […]
April 13, 2009
Hello Jim Grant, Thanks for your comment.You raise a very interesting point, and I haven’t figured out the answer. So […]
April 12, 2009
Aside from being fascinated, I felt worried after having watched the Arithmetic, Population, and Energy lecture by Bartlett – see […]
April 9, 2009
Continuing my last post: there’s a magic thing about doubling time, which in the tale of the emperor and his […]
April 7, 2009
I’m afraid something went wrong with the links in my previous post. Sorry, I still have to get the hang […]
April 5, 2009
This is my very first and therefore utterly serious post as a guest blogger for the Cognitive Edge site. When […]
March 26, 2009
Before a man can decide what he will do, he must first determine what he will not do 人有不為也而後可以有為 Thanks […]
March 25, 2009
Ideas about organizations are always based on implicit images or metaphors that persuade us to see, understand, and manage situations […]
March 24, 2009
Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
March 23, 2009
When a person lacks discrimination And his mind is undisciplined, the senses Run hither and thither like wild horses. But […]
March 19, 2009
This week I am at Yale for our company’s executive leadership skills class. I affectionately refer to it as reprogramming, […]
March 16, 2009
I hope to be able to write on a more frequent basis. If for no other reason that to catch […]
March 12, 2009
A fantastic journey awaits those who are interested. The crew over at Seed Magazine has put together a video that […]
March 9, 2009
I am making my way through the The Strategic Mind and it is a very interesting read. David referenced the […]
March 7, 2009
All living things seem driven at the most basic levels to self-repair. Multi-cellular organisms have a particular obsession with it […]
March 1, 2009
I have a friend who is a designer. When he talks about a company’s product he has the habit of […]
February 25, 2009
Skin carries – and reveals – the memory of the body’s interaction with the world, whether it is as an […]
February 23, 2009
I have a few posts in mind which will attempt to use what we know of the human body as […]
February 23, 2009
Today is the 75th birthday of Liberty, what used to be the National Council for Civil Liberties in the UK. […]
February 14, 2009
Some time ago we announced a narratives project around the practice and community of Agile Software development. It got stuck […]
February 9, 2009
The (London) Times had a front page recently on the juggernaut that is the NHS IT project. First there was […]
February 8, 2009
I somehow find myself as the guest blogger for a couple of weeks. My format introduction is: Steve Freeman is […]
February 7, 2009
When I wrote ‘The Strategic Mind’ I was determined that it would be a practical book. As a result I […]
February 6, 2009
Today we take a look at the fifth and sixth disciplines in my book, ‘reflect’ and ‘be simple’. Last year […]
February 5, 2009
Today I am taking a brief look at the third and fourth disciplines in my book, ‘act slowly’ and ‘serve […]
February 4, 2009
At the core of my book, ‘The Strategic Mind, The Journey to Leadership through Strategic Thinking’ lie seven key disciplines […]
February 3, 2009
The foundations for strategic leadership are based on two key elements, the capability to think outside the box and to […]
February 2, 2009
The key to strategic thinking is to be able to see a bigger picture, to distinguish the wood from the […]
February 1, 2009
It’s always nice to be invited to do something of real meaning so when Dave asked me to step in […]
January 27, 2009
As my first guest blog I thought it appropriate to start off with some remarks on the issue of “point […]
January 24, 2009
In an earlier blog I spoke of a tongue-in-cheek desire to assemble a catalog of perceptual patterns humans are likely […]
January 23, 2009
Following up on my earlier ‘Choose your Friends’ blog there were a few comments which speculated that the study’s conclusion […]
January 20, 2009
Tomorrow’s inauguration of Barack Obama is indisputably an incredibly momentous occasion. His election indicates that the habitual patterns of our […]
January 17, 2009
A recently published study by Nick Christakis and James Fowler, described in BMJ, a British Medical Journal claims that our […]
January 16, 2009
I was reminded of a large study we concluded in the fall of 2008 on employee attitudes about their quality […]
January 14, 2009
The following is in response to several comments I received about communities of practice (CoP) mentioned in an earlier blog. […]
January 12, 2009
Greetings from snowy Truckee, California (just north of Lake Tahoe high in the Sierra Nevada). In the spirit of providing […]
December 21, 2008
In order to graduate with an MSc in Information and Knowledge Management I was required to submit a research dissertation. […]
December 17, 2008
The guest blog is now open to contributions from anyone, including past guests. Details in the header on the front […]
December 14, 2008
This guest blog has been a great example of self-organizing process for me. At least at my intrapersonal scale, it […]
December 13, 2008
I’m curious these days about dominance, its role in human systems, and its function in complex adaptation. In an intervention […]
December 12, 2008
Recently many of my conversations have focused on accountability. Sometimes the context is management of a complex project in an […]
December 10, 2008
The Virtual Open House was great fun! We had holiday tunes, pictures and quotes, greeting cards, audience chat, multiple voices, […]
December 9, 2008
On December 9 from 2 to 4:30 CST, HSD Institute is hosting a Virtual Open House. The theme is CELEBRATING […]
December 8, 2008
Conflict is ubiquitous. Employees cope with anxiety. Blog readers challenge bloggers. Family members fight for attention. Neighbors bicker over boundaries. […]
December 6, 2008
I’m preparing for the next webinar in the series Strategy to Action: The Power of Human Systems Dynamics (http://www.uliveandlearn.com/). This […]
December 4, 2008
Of all the chaos and complexity metaphors, one that is increasingly relevant to my work in communities is the scale-free […]
December 3, 2008
The “edge of chaos” doesn’t exist in my world. Yes, I know it is only a metaphor, but I don’t […]
December 2, 2008
Lunch on Friday was with a particularly business-savvy academic. We are committed to offering a Masters degree in Human Systems […]
December 1, 2008
Thanks, Dave, for the invitation to this shared inquiry. There is nothing like a probing question, a rousing discussion, or […]
November 30, 2008
Jochum opened his guest blog with a quote from the book which radically changed his perspective. As I say goodbye […]
November 29, 2008
Please note that this post is NOT by Dave Snowden; it is a guest blog. Unfortunately in the last rebuild […]
November 27, 2008
My previous post was essentially about different worldviews reflected/reinforced in differing views of “complexity”. Before I am done my guest […]
November 27, 2008
Reading Dave’s post regarding “The major obstacle to the adoption of social computing” (which Dave says is “the IT department […]
November 26, 2008
Prior to training in Cognitive Edge and SenseMaker (in Amsterdam, Sept. 2008), I hadn’t been excited by a “new way” […]
November 25, 2008
I’ve suddenly realized that writer’s block might come because there is too much you want to say, rather than too […]
November 24, 2008
Today’s New York Times has a story about the reckoning for Citigroup: “Our job is to set a tone at […]
November 23, 2008
On Thursday night I attended an fundraising art auction for my wife’s employer, the Regina Early Learning Centre, and was […]
November 22, 2008
Apparently the roles of kids in a neighborhood have alway been a rich source of metaphors in the financial industry. […]
November 21, 2008
A bit more about Clay Shirkey. Observing blogs, wikipedia, and the rest of Web 2.0, the question is asked: “Where […]
November 20, 2008
In my previous post, I suggested that “grand narrative” doesn’t work very well in a blog. In many respects, I […]
November 19, 2008
I read quite a few blogs. Interestingly, I know of several that regularly write very well, in depth, on topics […]
November 18, 2008
Jochum is a very tough act to follow! And it just gets worse when he tells us that he is […]
November 6, 2008
At the moment it looks as if Amsterdam is falling apart. Or is it being rebuild in a grand future? […]
November 1, 2008
In parallel with the practicing of Cognitive Edge methods my interest in music attracted me to the idea of running […]
October 31, 2008
Its Halloween and we just got back to Peterborough in time for our usual trick or treaters. When the kids […]
October 29, 2008
Driving round Sunderland this week has brought back so many memories of my youth, none more than all the bands […]
October 27, 2008
“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that […]
October 26, 2008
The venerable Bede was a constant presence in my upbringing in Sunderland, I went to Bede School and I was […]
October 25, 2008
Arrived in Sunderland (on the north-east coast of England) to look after my Dad while the rest of the family […]
October 23, 2008
The first little neural correlate deserves a hat tip to PsyBlog for linking to an interesting and very relevant piece […]
October 22, 2008
I have for a long time been a fan of the Riverford Farm and its organic veg boxes (source of […]
October 22, 2008
Something vibrant and visual to cheer you up. I stumbled upon this prototype of a Flickr search engine called Hive […]
October 21, 2008
Inspired by my recent ‘Tales to Sustain’ storytellers gathering, I am currently developing an Organisational Sustainability workshop for those organisations […]
October 20, 2008
In the final weeks of English Nature I was running a workshop for Price Waterhouse and I asked “if anyone […]
October 19, 2008
Start with a picture of Wales to keep Dave happy. Last weekend I took cynefin home to North Wales and […]
October 19, 2008
A nice test of your perception for a Sunday evening – from the Open University. Bet you can’t do this
October 2, 2008
The reference for the study on cognitive complexity of presidents is below. I see that it was written before Reagan […]
September 30, 2008
Just got back from the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society conference in New York City. The conference hotel was in […]
September 9, 2008
Last week I was pleased to make connections with two members of the Cognitive Edge network: Julian Still and Gloria […]
September 1, 2008
My thoughts these past few weeks have been occupied with the US political process, as the democrats and then the […]
August 15, 2008
I’m just back from camping in the mountains of California near Lake Tahoe – a great place to re-orient your […]
July 31, 2008
I’m awaiting the arrival of friends from Paris – I was there during a terrible August heat wave several years […]
July 20, 2008
I’m not sure what my guest blogs are going to look like – it’s hard for an academic to let […]
July 14, 2008
Last month I spent 3 days with a diverse and interesting group of participants in the Cognitive Edge Accreditation Course […]
July 7, 2008
Feeling my way through the material from the April CE London course, my main concern at the moment is ‘how’. […]
July 6, 2008
This week I read an article about people in their thirties and how they don’t like to think for themselves […]
July 4, 2008
In 2006 the Dutch Huis voor de Democratie (House for Democracy) was founded. I have been a programme director from […]
June 30, 2008
On May 26-27 2008, Wageningen International and Learning by Design organised an innovation dialogue on ‘navigating complexity’. It sought to […]
June 26, 2008
I garden. More in theory than in practice. But I garden. For years, I’ve harboured hopes of bountiful harvests from […]
June 24, 2008
Two things for now. The first is more of a comment on Irene’s ‘Aha! Moment in the Development Sector’. I […]
June 19, 2008
The development sector really does manage to get its knickers in a knot at times. While agreeing that ‘it’s all […]
April 5, 2008
Gaussianitis: compulsive disorder characterised by a subject’s compulsive use of ‘Normal’ statistics in order to get away with the complexity […]
April 3, 2008
In a nice article on the pitfalls of statistics published today on KnowledgeWharton (The Use — and Misuse — of […]
March 30, 2008
On the New York Times (March 30) there is an interesting article on micro-projectors “The (micro)projectors may be particularly useful […]
March 27, 2008
Nearly all biological traits and many products for particular markets and functions, began life as something different. Feathers were selected […]
March 25, 2008
A few weeks ago Nature published an interesting article on a the memory of slime mould, a common bacterial film. […]
March 23, 2008
To bring my guest blogging time to a close here are a couple of ideas from John Kay to mull […]
March 21, 2008
Ben Ramalingam of ALNAP was kind enough to get in touch with a link to a working paper he co-authored: […]
March 20, 2008
Johnnie Moore passes on a cracking story that does a great job of capturing the (sometimes tiny) gap between control […]
March 19, 2008
Force field analysis, derived from what Lewin termed ‘field theory‘, is often bandied around as a tool to support a […]
March 18, 2008
System Failure by Jake Chapman was initially published in 2001 and updated in 2004 – the focus is on the […]
March 17, 2008
First of all – apologies for this not appearing by the tomorrow mentioned in the first entry; main excuse is […]
March 13, 2008
If you’re involved in organisational change you’ll be aware that – like reincarnation – four box models are making a […]
March 4, 2008
Internet access here in South Africa is a bit difficult this week. Monday no problem, but now there are generic […]
February 29, 2008
Hugh Connor director of social work in the eastern area of N Ireland said to me a couple of years […]
February 28, 2008
Belfast is beautiful today. Spring is kicking winter into touch. I went out for a run along the river Lagan […]
February 27, 2008
“That was a gorilla I missed…” Have heard a few public sector/third sector leaders in Belfast use this coded phrase […]
February 25, 2008
Greetings from Belfast. My relationship with Cognitive Edge goes back a while. I used to work in family therapy practice […]
February 23, 2008
I want to thank Dave for kindly inviting me to be the guest blogger for Cognitive-Edge this past week. I […]
February 22, 2008
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal I read two articles that at first glance seemed unrelated to each other. The first […]
February 21, 2008
Recently I started doing some work with a major hospital and in preparing my first intervention I reviewed some of […]
February 20, 2008
At the root of my second story on the organization considered as a whole and consisting of many (interdependent) parts, […]
February 19, 2008
With the US economy getting worse every day, many executives have started to cut their budgets. Cost reduction for many […]
February 18, 2008
Another sin I often see in companies, is that executives focus improvements on what they don’t want, rather than what […]
February 17, 2008
In many of the companies where I am involved as an advisor or consultant, managing improvement is an inherent part […]
February 16, 2008
I would like to share with you an interesting case I worked on that involved influencing the safety culture in […]
February 12, 2008
Phil Henshaw from New York (whose by line is “it’s not finding what people say interesting, but finding what’s interesting […]
February 7, 2008
The fourth and last answer to the four horsemen of the apocalypse is the absolute rebuttal of magical thinking, and […]
February 6, 2008
Positive deviance is a concept that emerged in the field of development aid during the 1960s, and it found its […]
February 5, 2008
In my last post I suggested that building capabilities in an organization and in individuals is a necessary step to […]
February 4, 2008
In my final posts this week I want to cover four inter-connected areas of work that I think show some […]
February 1, 2008
The final horseman of the apocalypse is Death (though he is not the last of the apocalyptic signs). At first […]
January 31, 2008
Famine follows war. Of course it does. The normal infrastructure of production breaks down or is destroyed. Famine is the […]
January 30, 2008
The second horseman of the apocalypse is War. He rides a red horse. He is of course the natural follower […]
January 29, 2008
A couple of years ago we were hired to help an organization craft their knowledge management strategy. As part of […]
January 28, 2008
I’m feeling slightly apocalyptic these days, if “slightly” is a qualification one can use with that extreme term. I suppose […]
January 27, 2008
MSc in Information and Knowledge Management Research Proposal Richard Lalleman (following his earlier guest blog) would be grateful for the […]
January 26, 2008
Complaints and Fitness-to-Practice are enshrined in the Health Professionals Order 2001 which regulates ‘health professionals’ including psychologists, counsellors, therapists and […]
January 25, 2008
The government is consulting about the section 60 legislation under the Health Professions Order 2001 which will force (though the […]
January 24, 2008
A response to Professor Willem Buiter’s blog Sunday 6th January, 2008 ‘Is Britain going mad?’ First paragraph: A binary is […]
January 24, 2008
A confession: For the past two years I have been promising to write a paper on this topic. My ‘To […]
January 20, 2008
I start with three items of news: Steve Wright who is accused of murdering five prostitutes, the inquest into Princess […]
January 18, 2008
From the News: A police Inspector? was bailed for one violent offence. He murders the key witness to the offence. […]
January 17, 2008
Certainty and its relationship to the Other: Zizek uses George Soros as his example of this. Soros is either manipulating […]
January 16, 2008
On reading my invitation to a Cognitive-Edge training session in New York, I was struck by the use of certainty […]
January 9, 2008
This experiment of being open is working well (and open for the rest of this week). Today Alan Byrne shares […]
January 2, 2008
Nick Leong has a topical and interesting question relating to the recent financial crisis and its impact on Citigroup. He […]
December 29, 2007
Our second blog during this open period comes from Hazel Edmunds (The Snowden cousins are all called Edmunds so there […]
December 28, 2007
Our first contribution to the open period comes from Richard Lalleman who is sharing his dissertation proposal (which uses the […]
December 15, 2007
The spontaneous emergence of multiple layers of structure and organization in complex systems make exploration and diversity creation inevitable. This […]
December 10, 2007
All evolved systems need to accomplish two almost opposite tasks if they are to persist over a long time. First, […]
December 6, 2007
I attended a really great day long “Technical Information Exchange” at the MITRE corporation yesterday. The topic was knowledge management; […]
December 5, 2007
Over at NetAge’s Endless Knots, Jessica Lipnack and Jeff Stamps have are providing a preview of a chapter they’ve contributed […]
December 3, 2007
The evidence is mounting. Net work (creating and sustaining networks across internal and external boundaries. The latest research from Harvard […]
December 1, 2007
The in-house “Chief Work Practices Architect” of a client is using Contextual Design to understand project team work practices. The […]
November 26, 2007
On Network Weaving, Valdis Krebs announces the “tipping point” for the term social graph. I followed some of the breadcrumbs […]
November 25, 2007
A year ago this time I was redlining the copy-edited version of Net Work. I had to fight that crushing […]
November 23, 2007
Next month I wrap up three years of work in Thailand. Officially, I’ve served as an advisor to Government Savings […]
November 21, 2007
Bouncing between coasts this week, I thought about how to give a flavor here of the things I wonder about. […]
November 19, 2007
Today I spent the day drinking good coffee sitting in a comfortable chair (7D) beside a window looking out at […]
November 18, 2007
“Exponential adoption often comes down to irrational factors such as addiction and codependence. When technologies are imperfect but hackable, users […]
November 17, 2007
I’ve always been fascinated by the processes and professions of design—above all, architecture. Faced with the complexity and multiple contexts […]
November 16, 2007
Last week, Richard Marrs and I presented at KMWorld about “Intuition’s Role in Decisions and Innovation.” The ideas behind the […]
November 15, 2007
Ok, I’m a baaaaad blogger. But things come up. Yesterday I got a frantic call from a friend who has […]
November 13, 2007
So last week, before a presentation at KMWorld, Dave Snowden dropped a huge carton on my podium. Inside was a […]