Alfred Korzybski‘s famous quote ‘the map is not the territory’ reminds us that an abstraction or a reaction is not the thing itself. The header chart above alludes to the situationally determined nature of thought patterns. We sometimes describe thoughts as occurring in strings, streams, clusters, or constellations – like mind maps. Thoughts are connected… Continue reading “The (mind) map is not the territory”
Tag: governance
“Ask a silly question …
… and you get a silly answer”. You have to ask a sensible question to earn a sensible response. My previous post argued that there is a set of criteria by which we can judge the quality of questions. It may not be immediately obvious to readers of that post that the same set of… Continue reading “Ask a silly question …
Quality Question Quest
A recurring theme of this blog has been the art of question framing. Question types, the skills required to ask them, along with various purposes for which they may be considered, have been the subject of earlier reflection and suggestions on this blog. See especially ‘A Question of Skillful Questioning‘. This post takes up the… Continue reading Quality Question Quest
Doorways, Gateways, Passages, & Portals of Change
A common theme encountered in discussions with my mentees concerns career progression. Sometimes the starting point for that discussion is a general sense of dissatisfaction with circumstances at their current workplace or in their current role. When this becomes evident I am prompted to caution them against moving away from the problem in preference to… Continue reading Doorways, Gateways, Passages, & Portals of Change
The Wisdom of Epimetheus: Igniting Sparks & Fighting Fires
Paradoxically, nonprofit leaders are charged with igniting sparks of creativity and innovation while at the same time being watchful for grass fires, or worse, burning platforms. ‘Stealing fire from heaven’ In Greek mythology, Prometheus was associated with innovation. His name meant ‘forethinker’, from which we can discern his role as an archetype of all futurists,… Continue reading The Wisdom of Epimetheus: Igniting Sparks & Fighting Fires
Combating Conflict: Negotiating Interests
The ‘view from the balcony’ was recently offered as a perspective that could assist with the resolution of conflicted positions during negotiations. Further reflections on this theme are offered here. Types of Conflict Illustrating the diversity of matters we may find ourselves conflicted about, the partial typology below offers just five conflict types for each… Continue reading Combating Conflict: Negotiating Interests
Elevating perspectives
The view from a high (or higher) vantage point has long been linked with strategic thinking and action. While often used in a military context, there is also a long tradition of symbolically linking elevated positions with elevated thinking about much broader concerns. A selection of symbolic references to various ‘elevated perspectives’ is offered in… Continue reading Elevating perspectives
Fairness & Justice at Work & Beyond
My recent post on Good Change: Bad Change included a chart on organisational justice (reproduced below for convenience) which suggested only some of the aspects of justice that we need to consider as nonprofit leaders. This post picks up on that theme and uses another collection of charts to broaden our consideration of the many… Continue reading Fairness & Justice at Work & Beyond
Stacking and Chunking in Everything We Do
My previous post ‘Singing from the same song sheet‘, suggested that service blueprints and strategy execution plans could be likened to musical scores. In commenting on the structural similarities, the ‘stacking’ of singing parts in a choral arrangement was compared with the ‘stacking’ of strategic goals in a coordinated organisational strategy. In the broadest sense,… Continue reading Stacking and Chunking in Everything We Do
Singing from the same song sheet
The ‘organisation as orchestra‘ metaphor has long been used to evoke the concept of functionally arranged clusters of people harmonising in their delivery of a work program. In a recent presentation to a regional group of IML (Institute of Managers and Leaders) members, I used a choir metaphor for similar purposes. While singers in the… Continue reading Singing from the same song sheet