When Lives Touch Most people reading this article will have at some point found themselves in a shop asking the assistant: “Excuse me, where are the grapes?” You can substitute grapes for beans; coffee; bananas etc. Grapes are not the point. You see, not that long ago this precise scenario was the root cause of …
A Dollar Spent Earnestly in the Village is Undoubtedly a Wonderful Thing, but Why are Universal Measurement Tools as Rare as Unicorn Droppings? System Fable# 6: The Village A King summoned her three bravest and most trusted Knights of the realm and informed them she would need to go on a pilgrimage. (Yes women can …
Learn to Enjoy the Tools of Your Craft and, by Doing So, Ask Yourself: “Deep Down Am I Consuming or Producing?” The tools we use along with our knowledge of process (and let’s not forget attitude) combine to form a magical thing we like to call “know-how”. It is our capacity to create stuff and generally get …
How We Eventually Create System “Pull” By Truly Connecting with the Person Before Us and Refusing to Be Disappointed No Matter What Most people reading this article will have experienced being in a shop and finding themselves asking the assistant a question like: “Excuse me, where are the grapes?” You can substitute grapes for beans; …
The Simple Matter of Delivering Predictable Outcomes in a Complex Ecosystem While Making Jam (or “Jelly” as Some May Know It) How often are you expected to deliver systemic outcomes within a defined timescale? Afterall, these days the quality of products and services can be predictably measured in terms of the end-to-end process and the …
It Wasn’t Me, Honest! Our second system fable is based on learning from system redesign work conducted in Birmingham, UK circa 2013/14. It involved numerous public service organisations, social enterprises and volunteers working in partnership. It would be fair to mention the project attracted local, national and international interest when it featured as a high-potential prototype …
Hope, Trust and Interdependency When facing system change, it can be easier to keep doing what we’ve always done rather than forage the valley of uncertainty for new possibilities. Familiarity becomes a false friend in times of change. Through the promise of stability and certainty, desire for the familiar suppresses our appetite for risk. Given the …
