Tag: systems thinking

Leadership

Mistakes to AVOID in Large Scale Transformation

In today’s rapidly changing world, organisations are constantly looking for ways to transform themselves to remain competitive. Large-scale transformation can be a daunting task, but it is essential for success in the long run. In this video, I discusses four common myths and six common mistakes that people make when leading transformation. I also share advice on how to avoid these mistakes and successfully lead transformations. You can watch the full video here. Myths about Transformation Myth 1: Once and done In reality, transformation is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort and attention. It is important to set up […]

Leadership

First Principles Based Leadership – Introducing Systems Thinking for Leaders

Premise This post is relevant for you irrespective of where you are currently situated in leadership ladder (Individual contributor, team lead, leading teams, leading managers, leading lines of business or leading organisations). While systemic awareness this is a foundational skill, it gets more and more crucial as you climb the leadership ladder. So, we would be better off learning about this while we are early in our careers and build on it as we grow by adding nuances and being intentional and learning from our experiences interacting with systems. What is a system? Before we can start to understand or […]

Leadership

First Principles Based Leadership – Building our Systemic Awareness

Premise In this series of posts about First Principles Based Leadership, we have already covered the importance of and how to improve our self awareness, social awareness, cultural awareness and contextual awareness. In this post, we will explore the importance of systemic awareness and how can we continue to improve our ability to understand and be more aware of the systems within which we operate in. We live in a world where everything is inter connected. There is a system at every level of abstraction and these systems create the limits to our efficiency. Systems awareness refers to the ability to understand and identify the […]

Leadership

Sustainable Systems with Donella Meadows

Here is a series of 4 videos in which Dana Meadows delivers a lecture on how we can think about and create Sustainable Systems. She starts off with “Systems 101” and goes on to show how important is to think in systems when we are trying to solve any complex problem, and specifically when we are trying to become more sustainable. Even though the video is old but the thinking is still fresh and extremely relevant for our times. Hope you enjoy watching and learning from a master systems thinker. Good leaders are always looking for the underlying systems that […]

Leadership

Leading in a White Water World

Premise John Seely Brown and Ann-Pendleton Jullian call the world we currently live in a white water world, constantly changing, evolving and emerging. In this two part series they share their insights from their book – Design Unbound. They talk about how do you design your systems for emergence rather than stability (large corporate) or growth (startup). I would highly recommend watching these two talks (each about an hour long) to understand what it would take to lead in such a white water world and how to design your systems for emergence. Part 1 In this part, they discuss the […]