Rapid Idea Improvement

What can we learn from Einstein’s theory of general relativity, in terms of (i) the power of the evolution of an idea and (ii) The importance of error correction

Episode about “what is an idea” … or “what is a relevant definition for an idea”. Classical: an idea is a short, action focused statement. E.g. “let’s go to the gym” … or “let’s make a plan first”. Ideas should not be isolated single statements. They are more. They should be evolving into broader and broader accounts of “how you want to solve a problem”. Why? By making them short and isolated you...

Episode on this slide I posted on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6680377988816617472/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6680149857430196224%2C6680377879110410240) Emergence: all phenomena that have complex causality in the way they “appear” Examples of emergent phenomena in organisations: A good idea that gets implemented with succes Cooperation between pe...

Episode about this slide I posted on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6680084290505592832/ Dealing with the difference between good and bad cultures in organisations, and especially with how good or bad cultures “grow”/ “get created” … (i.e. the drivers)

Governance = answers to the “who should rule/ decide/ do … about what?” question Why do we consider it as a dogma? It has the potential to solve everything Why can it never be “the” solution to all problems? What is missing therefore ?

We all know that criticism doesn’t work when it’s about people. We know it should be about content, content of people’s ideas. But then ? How should we provide criticism (or feedback) to content ?

Reporting is vital in organisations I want to highlight 2 very different ways of reporting … and it’s consequences: Status reporting : where do you stand versus plan ? “Theory reporting”: What are you solving? How ? And why ?

Small diversion into the 2 main epistemological theories: Justified True Belief and Critical Rationalism/ Fallibilism And why being fallible is good news in organisations (!)

What is "We should ... -management" ?  What are its mistakes and how to correct them ?

Contents: The bucket theory of knowledge: a classical theory about how knowledge is transmitted from one person to another The criticism and improvement on that theory (by Karl Popper) The implications thereof

The best ideas are not the ones that come from the smartest people Also, the first version of an idea is irrelevant What matters is HOW an idea evolves ! An idea can evolve along these content elements: The goal (what makes the problem to be solved) Approach (how to get to the goal) Status and planned progress (what part is realised and what part is still to be realised) But what are the relevant...

In this episode I go into 2 quotes of the philosopher Sir Karl Popper: Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a ways that you can avoid being misunderstood All observations are theory laden

What is fallibilism ? What is it’s opposite? Why is it relevant for management ? What are drawbacks? How to overcome the drawback ?

Ideas, and only ideas, are the primary ingredient for any type of improvement we seek This episode deals with how and why ideas get killed in organisations, and then do not make it into solutions that deliver the improvements we sought for. Out of scope in this episode: The questions on"What is the difference between good and bad ideas?" The question on "Who should have which idea?" Linkedin versi...

Flow is the optimum experience … as coined by the psychologist Mihaly Cszikcentmihaly. He did very interesting work in trying to figure out what the explanation was for this experience, what the causes or drivers were. He came up with 3 key drivers of Flow. The experience itself can be looked at from different perspectives as well and I want to go into one which is often underrated: The psychologi...

I use the term “problem solving” a lot, as a synonym for "work", and it needs some explanation. First of all, it’s NOT about interpersonal problems It is: CONTENT problems, that prevent you from making progress and that require you to come up with a solution to make progress again It’s not negative ! on the contrary, it’s positive ! It’s what you need in the first place to make progress ! Ignoring...

What is it ? Organisations are problem solving systems Everyone, at any moment, is doing something that is aimed at making progress (be it creating knowledge or executing knowledge to solve a problem) You now have options for organising problem solving Option 1: The role in the hierarchy determines the problem you are expected to solve There is a specific one-on-one link between who should solve t...

Emergence is a complex property of a physical system. A physical system can be anything from a bunch of atoms& molecules interacting together, up to organisations where people act and interact together as a system. In the case of organisations, the components of the system can be roughly divided into The people (and their competences, talent, personalities, ...) The rules of how to work togeth...

What software platform to use for your implementation program? You have 2 types of populations in a transformation program: The high level people: who need aggregated, consolidated views on progress of the transformation (to make decisions) The low level people: people in project teams executing the work, who need detail, structure and clarity in their tasks and progress The question is: How do we...

How do we know what we know? And why is that relevant for organisations? In this episode I touch upon a aspect of epistemology (the theories about how we create knowledge, grow knowledge and spread knowledge), namely the different potential sources of knowledge: 1) Authorities 2) Faith 3) Observations 4) A problem you start from Happy to hear your criticism Enjoy !  For more info, please visi...

Episode 4: People don't understand things by merely communicating or showing example behaviour About the fallacy of "the bucket theory of knowledge" For more info, please visit: www.pactifymanagement.com

So now for a controversial claim: ciriticism leads to the deepest form of cooperation ... For more info, please visit: www.pactifymanagement.com

First episode is on the question that has interested me for the last 20 years already: "Can you increase productivity and engagement simultaneously ?" For more info, please visit: www.pactifymanagement.com

Hello, This is the intro episode of a podcast I am starting up about management, behaviour and knowedge creation. Hope you like it Cheers Bart For more info, please visit: www.pactifymanagement.com