Author Archives: Helen Wilding

Elevator pitch – revisited

Posted on by
Reply

It was a while ago now when I wrote my post called “Elevator Pitch“.  I know it rang bells with a few of my fellow students  because the idea of the elevator pitch has come up in module forum and email exchange since.

Distracted thought process….are we yet former students or ex-students, I am not sure? Former or ex- has the built in message that you have stopped learning which seems very non-systemsy – perhaps this is like being a ‘provisional’ driver…mmm back to the point

It is raining today (no allotment  😥 and Alex busy with his French) so I found myself flicking through a recent book purchase called “Gamestorming: a playbook for innovators, rulebreakers and changemakers” (Gray et al, 2010, O’Reilly).  To my surprise I came across a ‘game’ called Elevator Pitch. Continue reading →

The social technology of (performance) measurement

Posted on by
1

The other day I was in a relatively informal meeting with 4 others when I found myself in a rant about ‘measuring’ – outcome indicators; performance measures; targets – whatever you want to call them, in essence they are all attempting to describing something in numerical terms.

The trigger for my rant was someone saying the recent corporate line – that we needed to agree on a small number of measures that would be used as Outcome Indicators (means of quantifying the achievement of an outcome) for our ‘priority’ outcomes – in fact we are to agree on precisely 3 measures for each priority outcome.

My rant started with the words “But why” and my argument fell into two broad areas. Continue reading →

The launch

Posted on by
9

Yesterday I had such fun.

I was invited to be part of the Open University’s Systems Groups launch of the four text books accompanying the Postgraduate Programme in Systems Thinking in Practice. The invitation came about a month ago when Ray Ison contacted me. It seemed like a great excuse to meet everyone so I said ‘yes’. Continue reading →

How can I help release natural systems talent in others?

Posted on by
2

This week I have had a couple of major breakthroughs in my quest to introduce systems thinking and practice to others.  Whilst I recognise those successes – this post is not about them specifically.  I want to reflect on what I am discovering about others and the learning that they value.

The colleagues I am talking about are people who are natural systems thinkers – I listen to them try and articulate their ideas, try and scribble diagrams that demonstrate their models of what they are thinking, use their hands to draw ‘systems’ in the air.  They use the word systems and talk of whole systems approaches and systems thinking.  I just want to say “stop, listen to me for a few hours and I’ll take this natural talent you have to a whole new level.  I want to let you know of some language, ideas and tools that will release this natural talent”.  Perhaps this is how it feels to be a sporting coach spotting new talent but seeing that the athlete does not currently have the technique, disposition or awareness of how their body works to take their natural ability to Olympic standard. Continue reading →

Prioritisation

Posted on by
Reply

This is a bit of a stream of consciousness and partial connections…..

The other week I was in a meeting when someone presented a paper which included, among other things, the thorny issue of how we go about ‘prioritisation’ at a strategic level.  For some reason the word niggled me and I had a sharp intake of breadth – the Chair noticed it and invited me to speak.  Now I know I could have stayed quiet, but I didn’t… instead I tried to articulate my concern. Continue reading →

Lean and Vanguard

Posted on by
Reply

It seems that Lean and Vanguard can evoke extreme reactions from some systems practitioners, whilst others seem much more accepting.  So far they are the only things I have come across that seem to create controversy in the systems world.

I have to confess to feeling a little niggled when Lean and/or Vanguard are conflated with systems thinking amongst those who are not ‘in the know’.  But, what I have realised is, I don’t really know enough about either of those approaches to use others’ interest in them as a way of helping them enter the ‘real world’ of systems thinking and practice. Continue reading →

Understanding leadership

Posted on by
2

The other day I was doing a trawl through Springer’s upcoming publication lists – with hindsight I have no idea why I was and what I was hoping I would find, but a really interesting sentence caught my eye.  I want to make sure I put that sentence somewhere and do not lose track of it.  Continue reading →

Junction

Posted on by
Reply

There are times in a journey that it seems appropriate to take stock, look back, look forward and decide where to go next and how.  Now is one of those times.  I have now finished TU812 so I am leaving behind a learning system that someone else has structured and guided me through.  Now, I am on my own.  I need to be my own guide for a while. Continue reading →

Talk by Ralph Stacey

Posted on by
Reply

hooray – assignment in – now I can start blogging again.

Last week, University of Northumbria had Ralph Stacey up to do a talk.  He’s a Professor of Management at University of Hertfordshire.  I’d heard of him because of the books he has written about complexity and management.

His latest book is Complexity and Organizational Reality: the need to rethink management after the collapse of investment capitalism (Routledge, 2010).  The topic of the talk was very similiar – Uncertainty and the need to rethink management after the collapse of investment capitalism.

So rather than have my scribbled notes hanging around on a bit of paper, I thought I would blog about his talk and my reflections.

Continue reading →

Managing systemic change

Posted on by
3

Seems weird that since November I have been studying a course with “Managing systemic change” as the module title and I now start questioning whether I know what it is or not?  I think in part it is because I am trying to connect up how ‘social learning’ fits into ‘managing systemic change’.

There have been a couple of forum threads on what we understand by managing systemic change but each time I think I grasp it, it goes away again.

Continue reading →