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NEW - 2010 - TAKE A GOOD LOOK AROUND: HELLO - THE ARENA FOR CHANGE - CHANGING THE WAY THE 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATION THINKS AND WORKS - ALL THINGS CAN BE SOLVED BY 24 CONVERSATIONS - AND THEN VISIT THE 'PIXAR' OF CONSULTING - The 21st CENTURY ORGANIZATION - WICKED PROBLEMS - THE AWESOME POWER OF MEANING - SIGNS - STRUCTURED VISUAL THINKING™' - 4D™ - THE MEANING MAKING MACHINE - 4D™' - WINNING THE BIG BIDS - 'KEVIN HOFFBERG'S 'BLOG' AND JOHN CASWELL'S 'JUST THINK' BLOG - MAIN PAGE - THE TRAINING SECTION - THE TECHNOLOGY VISION- INSIGHTS AND CREATIVITY AT WORK - EXPLAINING HOW TO CREATE A VISION MODEL - LATEST THINKING

Friday 10 of September, 2010

The 21st Century Organization

The Arena For Change Group Partners is dedicated to Changing The Way The 21st Century Organization Thinks & Works, and Not Solving The Wrong Problem Really Well by focusing on 24 Critical Conversations which creates The Arena For Change. Read also - Integrative Thinking - Design Thinking - Living Systems - Systems Thinking This image represents our model and approach to systemic change. We have simplified the tremendous complexity and confusion of todays transformative agenda into key themes, topics, sequences and frameworks to add logic and structured reasoning at senior level. We do this collaboratively and with high ownership and engagement. For more details see the The Meaning Making Machine and and the reason we need to change...! Getting at the Heart Of All The Issues This image represents the heart of it all. The Individuals, Teams, Systems and Infrastructure fully considered by the entire thinking that the 21st Century Organization needs to embrace...To The Power Of 24 Thinking through the clients 'exam question' as an integrated system - over time and in a structured and collaborative way...The Arena For Change, Integrative Thinking - Design Thinking - Living Systems - Systems Thinking Thinking About The World Today The future is now and without making dramatic changes to the way we behave and make decisions the world as we know it will change for the worse. Embracing the real issues of human performance, consciousness, responsibility, accountability and ownership. See Value Networks - Changing The Way The 21st Century Organization Thinks & Works - removing the outdated thinking of previous generations, leveraging the power of social tools and techniques such as the value network enabling the opportunity to change and unleash the intangible assets of humanity... 4D™ Overcoming The Traditional Barriers Deep understanding of the wider context, the skills, talent required and the reality of the situation will ensure that true change occurs. Without this everyone is working at low performance and high risk and cost. Not Solving The Wrong Problem Really Well Understanding the capabilities and competence of the existing systems and structures at the same time as changing behavior... 4D™ Explaining The GP Index The GP Index Throughout the last 2500 cases we have been capturing the likely standards and the clues to identify accelerated value and insights required for rapid change. We use the GP Index throughout each assignment to ensure we bring our expertise to bear in the right way and at the right time.... 4D™ The Tyranny Of The Tangible The Tangible Intangibles We need to understand that by only measuring what we can see we miss the massive reality of human intelligence and opportunity... The Riches Of The Intangible The Tangible Intangibles By understanding the meaningful exchanges of intelligence and knowledge between all the nodes in the 'living system' coupled with the new social trends and techniques the 21st Century Organization can truly map and model the framework for lasting change and value creation...

Integrative Thinking

Rotman School of Management defines integrative thinking as:

"...the ability to constructively face the tensions of opposing models, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model that contains elements of the individual models, but is superior to each."

"Integrative thinkers build models rather than choose between them. Their models include consideration of numerous variables — customers, employees, competitors, capabilities, cost structures, industry evolution, and regulatory environment — not just a subset of the above. Their models capture the complicated, multi-faceted and multidirectional causal relationships between the key variables in any problem. Integrative thinkers consider the problem as a whole, rather than breaking it down and farming out the parts. Finally, they creatively resolve tensions without making costly trade-offs, turning challenges into opportunities."

Background

To develop the theory of integrative thinking, Martin interviewed more than 50 successful leaders, from the fields of business (Jack Welch, AG Lafley, Nandan Nilekani), the arts (Atom Egoyan, Piers Handling) and the not-for-profit world (Victoria Hale). He spoke with these leaders, some for more than 8 hours, about the decisions that they had made over their careers and about how they thought through those decisions. What he found was that some of them had a distinct common characteristic - "the predisposition and capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads. And then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they're able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea."

Theory

Integrative thinkers differ from conventional thinkers among a number of dimensions. First, they tend to consider most variables of a problem to be salient. Rather than seeking to simplify a problem as much as possible, they are inclined to seek out alternative views and contradictory data.

Second, they are willing to embrace a more complex understanding of how those salient features interconnect and influence one another, a more complex understanding of causality. Rather than limiting the possible causal relationships to simple, linear, one-way dynamics, they entertain the possibility that the causal forces may be multi-directional (i.e. circular) and complex.

Third, integrative thinkers approach problem architecture differently. Rather than try to deal with elements in piece-parts or sequentially, they strive at all times to keep the whole of the problem in mind while working on the individual parts. Finally, when faced with two opposing options that seem to force a trade-off, integrative thinkers are included to strive for an creative resolution of the tension rather than simply accepting the choice in front of them.

“Integrative thinking shows us a way past the binary limits of 'either/or'. It shows us that their is a way to integrate the advantages of one solution without cancelling out the advantages of an alternative solution, affording us, in the words of poet Wallace Stevens, “the choice not between, but of.” - Roger Martin

Influences

Integrative Thinking is influenced by and connected to a number of intellectual traditions. Most notably, it is influenced by the pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce and his notion of abductive reasoning, the falsificationism of Karl Popper and the management theories of Chris Argyris and James March.

Integrative Meets Design Thinking

“Think of Design Thinking being systems to define what could be. This is really all about a systemic, holistic approach to finding something new. It uses inductive and abductive reasoning which many people are not comfortable using. Our educational systems take the creativity out of people over time. Many classes teach deductive reasoning and analysis and how to break things down. They want students to get the "right" answer. This process creates conformity and regulation, and students that break away from that conformity are criticized. Most 5-year-olds are creative geniuses when they enter school, and 20 years later have had that squeezed out of them.” - Roy Luebke

It is also related to the work of Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and others.