Rebuilding our civic economy
Our future prosperity depends on developing new, collective habits of complex thinking together. At the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, we have introduced the concept of a “civic economy” to explain the...
View ArticleTo move quickly, go slowly (at first)
I (re)learned a valuable lesson this week. We design and guide new networks to move quickly, to be come more agile. The paradox, however, is that you cannot rush the formation of these trusted...
View ArticleDiversity Drives Innovation: Here’s How
We’re finding more and more value in the concept of “strategic diversity” – that is, the way in which team members’ cognitive preferences shape their roles on the team. Learning how to optimize that...
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Confusing Technical and Adaptive Challenges
Companies get into trouble when their managers confuse technical and adaptive challenges. A technical challenge has a right answer. It involves linear thinking, root cause analysis, and...
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Strategic Doing: Handling Dancing Landscapes
Over on our massively open online course (MOOC) introducing Strategic Doing, a student pointed to the work of Herbert Simon an economist and political scientist. I responded: “There is a lot of...
View ArticleThe Story of Strategic Doing in Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan continues to struggle through a challenging transformation. For the past seven years, we have been working in Flint, supporting a remarkable core team. Recently, we learned that Bob...
View ArticleBy Embracing Complexity We Find Simplicity
We’ve grown up with a mechanical worldview that is now getting in the way of our ability to adapt and survive. With this mechanical mindset, we think of the world as a machine. We can analyze facts and...
View ArticleTeaching Strategy Skills With Simulation Games
At our Lab at Purdue, we teach the multiple skills of complex collaboration with simulation games. Every organization is facing complex, wicked challenges. We are unprepared. Traditional management...
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Why Trump’s Talks with North Korea Failed
If you are familiar with the dynamics of collaboration, it’s easy to understand why Trump’s talks with Kim Jong-un failed. Successful, enduring collaborations emerge from conversations with an...
View ArticleMoving Toward Strategy as a Flexible Process
Strategy is dynamic. Different business units — positioned at different locations on the S-Curve — will face different strategic challenges. The implication is profound: a one-size fits all, top-down...
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