Theories, definitions and principles “It works in practice. But does it work in theory?” Check it out here! Choosing from the list alongside this page, we suggest you start with the fishtank metaphor, with the tank representing the organisation, and the fish as managers and other employees. Follow this by reading the short synopsis on systemic leadership. At a more practical level, at different times and to a different extent, managers need to be able both to manage and lead according to their position in the organisation. Those with a more academic interest can read how systemic leadership draws on the management discipline of systems thinking in basic principles of systems thinking as applied to management and leadership. And if you are interested in how the discipline of systems thinking has developed and which aspects are particularly relevant to systemic leadership today, then read the historical link between systems thinking and leadership. Alongside in the blue column is the full list.
How to make an infographic online: five essential free tools Given the popularity of infographics, you’d be wise to consider using them to help achieve your content marketing goals. They can be great for social sharing, blog fodder and inbound links. The last time I created an infographic I used – wait for it - Microsoft Excel. Thankfully there are now some far better options, and they're surprisingly easy to use. I have compiled five of online tools that will help you to create infographics. Hold on a moment! Before you begin, consider that many infographics are often – to quote Econsultancy Research Director Linus Gregoriadis – “high on graphics and low on information”. As such it is important to map out your story / message / goals before starting to work on the design itself. There’s a great post on the LEWIS PR blog that explains how to optimise an infographic, based around three key questions, which are: 1. 2. 3. Sound advice, and it's worth remembering that old proverb about "he who fails to plan, plans to fail". Easelly Piktochart Infogram
Systemic Competitiveness Systemic Competitiveness An analytical concept formulated by a group of researchers (Klaus Esser, Wolfgang Hillebrand, Dirk Messner, Jörg Meyer-Stamer) at German Development Institute since the early 1990s. The main messages: Dynamic economic development is not only based on functioning markets and individual entrepreneurship but also on collective efforts to shape a supportive environment for business development. At the meso-level we address specific policies (such as technology policy, industrial policy, regional policy, etc.) and the institutional and organizational environment which supports firms. Publications: Systemic Competitiveness Benchmarking Table (PDF, 70 kB) Systemic Competitiveness and Local Economic Development, Book contribution, 2008 (PDF, 250 kB) Making market systems work? (with Frank Wältring:) Value Chain Analysis and "making markets work for the poor" (M4P)-- Poverty reduction through value chain promotion. Systemic Competitiveness Revisited.
The 5 Best Free Tools For Making Slick Infographics It's not enough to simply write about data any longer; the world wants visuals. While there are many professional information designers making a name for themselves, such as Nicholas Felton of Feltron.com, the majority of these digital artists are up to their eyeballs in high-paying work. Where does this leave you? Well, if you want to spruce up your documents, blog posts, and presentations, there are some free tools online that can help. Many Eyes This IBM Research tool gives you two choices: an option to browse through existing sets of data, or use your own. Google Public Data Explorer Like IBM, Google has made a public version of one of its research tools. Hohli There are many occasions when a Venn Diagram is the perfect way to describe a concept or compare relationships among a few different things. Wordle Although this tool describes itself as a "toy" for generating word clouds, it can be an effective service to spruce up your work. Visual.ly Watch more Work Smart: [Images by Wordle]
What is a Social System?: Systemics Archive: Nagai Toshiya A social system is not just a gathering of people. It does not consist in the interaction between people either. You can find a mere causal interaction between things. 1. The double contingency I defined a system as function to reduce indeterminacy. Suppose you run into a stranger in an anarchic jungle. Whether I abandon my gun or not depends on whether the opponent abandons his gun or not, and whether he abandons his gun or not depends on whether I abandon my gun or not. 2. It is the best for both to abandon the weapons and coexist peacefully. The combination of payoff in possible four cases is as follows: My reasoning is " Whether the opponent will abandon or keep his gun is indeterminate. This is the so-called prisoners' dilemma. According to the game theory, the strategy that maximizes the minimum of my payoff, whatever strategy the other player(s) may adopt, is the optimal response. 3. When the third is a suspicious alien, he may enslave the two of you, if you abandon your guns.
mmunicating sustainability: the rise of social media and storytelling | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional As the SMI-Wizness Social Media Sustainability Index documents, big bold campaigns still played an important role in 2012 – Sony's Futurescapes, Siemens' Answers and Microsoft's Youthspark stood out. However, an increasing number of companies, including GE, Renault, Ford and this year's index leader, Levi Strauss, put stock in developing a strong editorial voice. We call it a "magazine mentality", enabling an always on and always accessible channel of sustainability communication with investors, employees, media, NGOs and, yes, customers. This magazine mentality was triggered by a simple yet complicated reality: sustainability is no longer only of interest to niche stakeholders. Social media has been the driving force behind this change of audience and community. Indeed, in 2010, when we first published this index, just 60 companies had dedicated social media channels to talk about sustainability. How has social media driven this change in how sustainability is communicated?
Systemic competitiveness: a new challenge for firms and for government This article analyses the concept of systemic competitiveness by examining its determining factors and the way in which they interrelate. Can 'nexus thinking' alleviate global water, food and energy pressures? | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional With the world population growing at a rate of around 80 million people a year, it is estimated that by 2030 the world will need 30% more water, 40% more energy and 50% more food. That's not just to feed, water and power the new arrivals, but also those currently living "off grid" in developing countries as they rise out of poverty. In the past, water, food and energy have too often been dealt with as separate issues. Biofuels are a classic example. Once the great hope for sustainable energy, bio-diesel's insatiable appetite for wheat saw global food prices spike in 2008 and 2011, causing civil unrest. Panicked into action, the international community spoke out at the German government's Bonn 2011 conference and the water-food-energy nexus. What is nexus thinking? The nexus is a recognition that any solution for one problem, for example water, must equally consider the other two in the nexus. China as a case study China is an interesting case study. But these are not strident solutions.
A Taste of Systemics A Special Integration Group (SIG) of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) originally SGSR, Society for General Systems Research. By Bela Banathy The second half of the twentieth century is marked by massive changes affecting all aspects of our lives. A world-view (window to the world) is like a lens through which we perceive the landscape of life that becomes our reality. This "view of the world" (world-view) has many dimensions: the socio-cultural, the socio-technical, the socio-economic, the organizational, and the scientific just to name a few. This change from one era to another is often called "PARADIGM SHIFT." When a new stages emerges in the evolution of society, such as the case around the midpoint of this century, the continued use of the old paradigm, the old-world-view-lens, creates ever-increasing problems. The mind set of the industrial era has its roots in classical science - often associated with Newton - that emerged some three hundred years ago.
Pegasus Systems Thinking in Action | The Value Web At the Pegasus Systems Thinking in Action Conference this year, a cross-sector community represented by nearly 500 people from each continent gathered to connect, learn, and reflect in regards to the session theme: “Fueling New Cycles of Success.” We all know in our bones what it’s like to find inspiration from leading thinkers. We follow their books, talks, ideas – seeking to absorb their insights into our own, apply their provocations to our best intent and action. But to recently scribe for some of the people who are most influential to my own facilitation practice brought a kind of mental model and process high. This feeling, combined with a series of truly gut-reaching questions, leads me to share highlights here – so the word can spread and take root in as many concerned global citizens as possible. Here are some threads of particular relevance to the whole of our work: Andy Hargreave presented his thinking on The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change.
Let The Network Do The Work One of the most striking things I see when watching organizations make the transition from legacy industrial models of working to new network-based models, is that we keep trying to employ the new tools and ideas in the same old ways. Certainly, it’s quite hard to unlearn the old methods, so deeply instilled are they by prior experience, history, and momentum. But as businesses, even today, we largely still try to create all the ideas, try to control everything, and focus on doing all the work to produce outcomes within the organization, team, or enterprise, with a little help of perhaps a few closely held suppliers and business partners. In short, most organizations still have an out-dated and overly centralized model for working, and it’s turned out to be a very difficult habit to break. If I have a single key lesson that every organization seeking to digitally transform must learn it’s this: You must let the network do the work. Additional Reading: What Is the Future of Work?
"Systems Thinking" Guru Peter Senge on Starbucks, P&G, and the Economic Power of Trash One of the world's top management gurus is spending a lot of time these days thinking about trash. I spoke with author of The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, because of his work with Starbucks on their pledge to provide recycling in all their stores. But it turns out that his interest in the waste stream goes far beyond that. True to his reputation as the major popularizer of "systems thinking," Senge sees the potential for a whole "underground economy" of great wealth that's literally being tossed away under our noses. "Nobody likes to throw stuff away," he told me. On the Starbucks cup: It’s an archetypal problem and I liked it right away. On the Starbucks "Cup Summits": So you have a compostable cup, so what? On recycling and detergent jugs: My friend from the oil company has a great example: look at polypropolene detergent containers. 100% recyclable. On the "underground economy" and the future of trash: I'm really interested in how you create a whole new economy of recycling.
Learning for a Change It's been almost 10 years since Peter Senge, 51, published "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization" (Doubleday/Currency, 1990). The book was more than a business best-seller; it was a breakthrough. It propelled Senge into the front ranks of management thinkers, it created a language of change that people in all kinds of companies could embrace, and it offered a vision of workplaces that were humane and of companies that were built around learning. But that movement hit a few speed bumps. To learn more about the evolving landscape of organizational learning, Fast Company interviewed Peter Senge in his office on the campus of MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What's your assessment of the performance of large-scale change efforts over the past decade? Most leadership strategies are doomed to failure from the outset. And that's just the public track record. Why haven't there been more successful change efforts? What's the best way to begin creating change?
Telling stories is great for sustainability marketing | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional For more than a hundred years, advertisers have used stories as their primary weapon for persuading people to make decisions about who they are, what they want, and (obviously) what they buy. In Winning the Story Wars, Jonah Sachs' book on how to be heard in an overcrowded marketplace, he points to Listerine's "often a bridesmaid, never a bride" ad in the 1920s as one of the most successful story-led campaigns of the last century. But for Sad Edna, the ad's unlucky heroine, the story is one of inadequacy. Edna's halitosis, and, her lack of awareness of it, means she's doomed not to marry while other, better sanitised friends bag the man and the life they've always dreamed of. Humans have used story power to remember, entertain and persuade since we used rocks as knives. Stories engage our senses; their fuel is emotion and the journey they take us on is measured in feelings. But there is hope. It made me feel empowered. My advice? • Make me feel empowered, not guilty. • Entertain me.