Category: leadership

Complexity and planning for “endstates”

from a discussion on usefulness or not of the “end-state” concept and planning in general when faced with the challenges of nation building: Complexity theory says that complexity arises from a combination of 4 attributes: moderate to high levels of interdependence, connectedness,  diversity and adaptation. Complex systems do not lend themselves to cause & effect […]

Which one is the adult?

Obama: “We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth.” Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.” The rest of Sarkozy’s remarks: “President Obama dreams of a world without weapons […]

Design versus planning: what to do when you don’t know what to do

The scientific method has been responsible for the most extraordinary improvement in mankind’s standard of living. Since the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, it has been responsible for every major advance in human understanding and technology. The scientific method relies on a positivists worldview, which can be said to value certainty, control, objective reality, and planning. […]

The future of education in a net-centric world

reinventinglife.org  Surveys of CEOs and futurists alike all agree that the future is calling to us with a need for open systems, open thinking, collaborative organizations, workplaces and attitudes.  Net-centric  democratic education,  public and private movements for social justice, moral and honorable business enterprises,  and cross cultural communications all place a premium on skills, tools, […]

reflecting on the forest past the boundary of post-positivism

Creswell talks about the 4 worldviews that shape the  research goals, objectives, methods, interpretive measures, and sense making of researchers.  I inherited a post-positivist outlook from my formative years working in a machine shop with designers, engineers, craftsmen,  and other shop rats. My years of experience as a planner in the Army helped me appreciate […]

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