I was alerted to this blog entry by my LinkedIn account this morning.
Amish Small Business Secrets Revealed is a review of the book, “Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive”, by Erik Wesner.
The book review was posted on BestBizPractices.org by Mike Clough a few days ago. It's well worth the five or six minutes it will take you to read it.
The Amish succeed at small business (defined here as up to $5 million) at twice the national average success rate after 5 years. This fact alone will make you want to know more.
Note: Erik Wesner, the book's author, has several comments in the Comments section of the blog entry.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Organizational Theory, or What's REALLY Going On Out in the Cube Farm
I always like talking organizational theory, especially when it’s being looked at through the lens of complexity. I have numerous references – both concrete and specific to organizations, and general background reading on complexity science – that you might find interesting.
I’m not sure how much reading you may have done in this area, but a good practical place to start is Meg Wheatley’s stuff ("Leadership and the New Sciences," etc.). If you’re looking for the scientific basis, I HIGHLY recommend "Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos" by M. Mitchell Waldrop.
You may also want to look at Stephan Wolfram’s work to better understand the distinctions between order, complexity, and chaos. I think many people confuse complexity and chaos and it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, the video on Driving in India I posted last week is an excellent example of complexity, rather than chaos. If it were chaos, there would be crashes all over the place, and repeated random - possibly negative - outcomes of the close encounters. You see none of that in the video.
Two fun things to look up on the internet via Google are ‘Boids’ and John Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ (not to be confused with the Milton-Bradley kids’ board game). These are both excellent examples of rich complex behavior arising – emerging – out of systems governed by a relatively few simple rules (an ideal for organizations to strive for, wouldn’t you say?).
In fact, Waldrop’s "Complexity..." contains a fascinating anecdote about a researcher in a lab late one night having a (literally) hair-raising experience with the Game of Life he had running on one of the lab computers. All of a sudden he had the eerie feeling that something was in the room with him, some sort of living entity. It turned out to be the Game of Life that was running.
This is all really about systems and systems thinking, of course. The best business book on systems thinking to ever come down the pike (in my opinion) is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter M. Senge. Again, I HIGHLY recommend it, along with Meg Wheatley’s stuff.
All fun stuff! Good luck in your explorations!
I’m not sure how much reading you may have done in this area, but a good practical place to start is Meg Wheatley’s stuff ("Leadership and the New Sciences," etc.). If you’re looking for the scientific basis, I HIGHLY recommend "Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos" by M. Mitchell Waldrop.
You may also want to look at Stephan Wolfram’s work to better understand the distinctions between order, complexity, and chaos. I think many people confuse complexity and chaos and it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, the video on Driving in India I posted last week is an excellent example of complexity, rather than chaos. If it were chaos, there would be crashes all over the place, and repeated random - possibly negative - outcomes of the close encounters. You see none of that in the video.
Two fun things to look up on the internet via Google are ‘Boids’ and John Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ (not to be confused with the Milton-Bradley kids’ board game). These are both excellent examples of rich complex behavior arising – emerging – out of systems governed by a relatively few simple rules (an ideal for organizations to strive for, wouldn’t you say?).
In fact, Waldrop’s "Complexity..." contains a fascinating anecdote about a researcher in a lab late one night having a (literally) hair-raising experience with the Game of Life he had running on one of the lab computers. All of a sudden he had the eerie feeling that something was in the room with him, some sort of living entity. It turned out to be the Game of Life that was running.
This is all really about systems and systems thinking, of course. The best business book on systems thinking to ever come down the pike (in my opinion) is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter M. Senge. Again, I HIGHLY recommend it, along with Meg Wheatley’s stuff.
All fun stuff! Good luck in your explorations!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Driving in India
A friend sent me this video the other day. It's wildly compelling to watch in an almost funny sort of way. In fact, I think some of you will watch it waiting to see a horrible crash. However, I want you to look at it from an organizational behavior standpoint. I think there are some lessons here. Give it a go and see what lessons you can draw.
Driving in India
Posted using ShareThis
This is an excellent example of organizational behavior based on ideas borrowed from systems thinking and complexity theory. However, before I get started, and because we're so early in the lifecycle of this blog, let me explain something.
I've long been a proponent of looking at life, especially organizational life, through the "lenses" of complexity theory and systems theory. That is, using those theories as metaphor for understanding how organizations work.
I'll get further into the details of that concept as I post more to this blog. For now, consider the possibility that one will get richer, more complex behavior out of a system governed by a few simple rules than one will get out of a system governed by an over-abundance of complicated rules.
In this video you see a system governed by a few simple rules. Perhaps rules such as: take turns, fill the voids, avoid collisions (maybe that one's too obvious), all entities (vehicles and pedestrians) have equal right of way, etc. But very efficient, no? And surprisingly safe - at least for the 2 minutes and fourteen seconds of the video.
What do you think would happen if they threw in a trffic light? A turn lane? Imposed a 'No U-Turn' rule?
I'm looking forward to your comments.
Driving in India
Posted using ShareThis
This is an excellent example of organizational behavior based on ideas borrowed from systems thinking and complexity theory. However, before I get started, and because we're so early in the lifecycle of this blog, let me explain something.
I've long been a proponent of looking at life, especially organizational life, through the "lenses" of complexity theory and systems theory. That is, using those theories as metaphor for understanding how organizations work.
I'll get further into the details of that concept as I post more to this blog. For now, consider the possibility that one will get richer, more complex behavior out of a system governed by a few simple rules than one will get out of a system governed by an over-abundance of complicated rules.
In this video you see a system governed by a few simple rules. Perhaps rules such as: take turns, fill the voids, avoid collisions (maybe that one's too obvious), all entities (vehicles and pedestrians) have equal right of way, etc. But very efficient, no? And surprisingly safe - at least for the 2 minutes and fourteen seconds of the video.
What do you think would happen if they threw in a trffic light? A turn lane? Imposed a 'No U-Turn' rule?
I'm looking forward to your comments.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
On Leadership...
Leadership is an emergent quality. It surfaces when needed and submerges when no longer needed.
There's a simple test to see if you are leading: if you're doing something, going somewhere - literally or metaphorically - turn around. If people are following you, you're leading. If no one's following you, you're not leading.
This is not good or bad. It simply is. You might be doing good and necessary things, but at the moment, you're not leading. Leadership and followership are yin and yang. One cannot exist without the other.
This points out the fact that followership is just as important as leadership. Sadly, this fact is missing in virtually all leadership dialogue.
Lastly, the functions of leadership and management do not intersect. The people performing either might be both, e.g. leaders might be managers and/or vice versa, but the functions do not meet.
People might be leaders at one moment and followers the next - or leaders in one instance or context, and followers in another.
These thoughts grew from some studying I did in the late '90s, using complexity theory as metaphor for organizational behavior.
Briefly, complexity theory implies that systems with a few simple rules exhibit rich, complex behavior, while systems with lots of rules tend toward stasis (death).
My interest sprang from a friend's Master's thesis at Augsburg College in 1998, "Managers are Appointed, Leaders Emerge: How New Scientific Paradigms Inform Organizational Leadership."
Obviously, his thesis focused on leadership and followership, while my own personal studies (nowhere nearly as organized or as well documented as his) focused more on overall behavior of organizations.
There's a simple test to see if you are leading: if you're doing something, going somewhere - literally or metaphorically - turn around. If people are following you, you're leading. If no one's following you, you're not leading.
This is not good or bad. It simply is. You might be doing good and necessary things, but at the moment, you're not leading. Leadership and followership are yin and yang. One cannot exist without the other.
This points out the fact that followership is just as important as leadership. Sadly, this fact is missing in virtually all leadership dialogue.
Lastly, the functions of leadership and management do not intersect. The people performing either might be both, e.g. leaders might be managers and/or vice versa, but the functions do not meet.
People might be leaders at one moment and followers the next - or leaders in one instance or context, and followers in another.
These thoughts grew from some studying I did in the late '90s, using complexity theory as metaphor for organizational behavior.
Briefly, complexity theory implies that systems with a few simple rules exhibit rich, complex behavior, while systems with lots of rules tend toward stasis (death).
My interest sprang from a friend's Master's thesis at Augsburg College in 1998, "Managers are Appointed, Leaders Emerge: How New Scientific Paradigms Inform Organizational Leadership."
Obviously, his thesis focused on leadership and followership, while my own personal studies (nowhere nearly as organized or as well documented as his) focused more on overall behavior of organizations.
The Beginning...
Hi folks. For my first post in this new blog I thought I'd explain myself a little bit more.
I'm intending to use this blog to discuss anything and everything I can see that will benefit someone in business. You may be working for someone, or you may be an entrepreneur, but you're out there somewhere, trying to make a living. I aim to help you find an eclectic set of tools to accomplish just that.
You'll find posts on leadership, management, business attire, tactics, observations of human nature, book recommendation, ideas for improving your mind, ideas for improving your position, etc, etc.
I hope you enjoy it. I really hope it challenges you. Most of all, I hope it helps you.
I'm intending to use this blog to discuss anything and everything I can see that will benefit someone in business. You may be working for someone, or you may be an entrepreneur, but you're out there somewhere, trying to make a living. I aim to help you find an eclectic set of tools to accomplish just that.
You'll find posts on leadership, management, business attire, tactics, observations of human nature, book recommendation, ideas for improving your mind, ideas for improving your position, etc, etc.
I hope you enjoy it. I really hope it challenges you. Most of all, I hope it helps you.
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