I found a short video by Shawn Callahan with one of the best, simple explanations of the Cynefin Model I’ve seen yet. It’s less than 5 minutes long. Most of it is about the Complex Domain, where much (if not most) human systems are.
Video here: http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2009/04/a_simple_explan.html
Callahan points out that in the Complex Domain we run into much of what we often characterize as the soft side of systems: culture, morale, leadership, etc. Success frequently comes from being able to detect patterns and act on them. (And, if we were to bring in John Boyd we’d say that success comes from the people who are able to detect and act correctly before their competition. The best of the best react before they consciously realize that they’ve detected a pattern.)
The key is a sentence that Callahan says about about 3 minutes in. He points out that stories are one of the primary ways that human beings can be use to detect patterns. And, it’s through stories that we can learn to detect patterns that we may never have run into in real life.
One aspect of business novels that is very common is that the main characters have to struggle. They have to struggle to figure out what to do. They have to struggle to convince others to go along with them. That’s all the sort of thing we can learn from stories. And, more importantly, it’s the sort of thing which rarely shows up in text books.
Of course, there are exceptions. Dr. Deming, for instance, in “The New Economics” says that a leader must have an understanding of psychology to be able to understand people. (How you come up with that is up to you.) I recently loaned my copy of Russell Ackoff’s “Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies.” Great little book and one of the reasons it’s great is that it has a story for each point.
Similarly, books like Robert Greene’s “The 33 Strategies of War” includes a description of the strategy and then two stories for each, one military, one business.
My point here is that a huge amount of the learning we do is through stories. A business novel is simply a story that’s longer than most. In reality, nearly all business books have stories in them, whether they’re called test cases or examples or whatever. It’s how we learn. Business novels use the form because it works....for most people.
Steve Holt
On 2/8/10 2:45 AM, "Mario López de Ávila Muñoz" <listas@...> wrote:
Dear Ross,
Yes, I have read Old man and the Sea, La Nausea de Sartre and El Extranjero de Camus, among many hundreds of universal literature works since I started reading El Aleph de Borges when I was 8 years old. In fact, in my country all of them and many more [Have you read The Quijote of Cervantes?] are mandatory reading when you are between 14 and 18 years old. Of course, I have come back many times to many of this books and almost every time it is as the first time I read them. They are masterpieces.
Maybe I am wrong, but It seems to me that TOC novels are… well, they play in another, totally different league. They are valued, IMHO, not only – and not mainly – for the quality of their writing or style, but for their clarity, rigor and for the quality of their ideas. And I’d add: for their brevity.
Best regards,
Mario López de Ávila
De: cmsig@yahoogroups.com [mailto:cmsig@yahoogroups.com] En nombre de Ross Milne
Enviado el: lunes, 08 de febrero de 2010 1:54
Para: cmsig@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: RE: [Yahoo cmsig] Re: Recent reading--Velocity and Simplifying Innovation
Some interesting commentaries in this conversation.
Science versus Art? Reductionism versus Holism?
Why read it if you already know the answer?
Why buy the books if all you want is the ideas?
In many cases good novels are not a single reading event!
For answers; the TOC construct is widely available
www.dbrmfg.co.nz <http://www.dbrmfg.co.nz> is my preferred online reference source.
Read Hemingway's Old Man and The Sea in one sitting and read it again sometime later.
It's interesting that the best novels have depth!
Try Sartre's Nausea or Camus, L'Etranger
As Eli says, identify the constraint, elevate, break and beware inertia!
mho
Ross
>>> "Rob Newbold" <prochain@...> 8/02/2010 8:18 a.m. >>>
I think it’s pretty well documented (and researched) that for most people, stories are easier to read, easier to remember, and easier to put into context than raw facts. I had the strong impression, at the Tokyo TOCICO conference, that Eli believed he had solved the major problems of culture change and proven the solution through the IIO book, fiction though it be. Which, in a weird but amusing way, kind of demonstrates the point. On the other hand, the information content for novels is much lower, so I expect experts will tend more to appreciate textbooks.
Rob Newbold
ProChain Solutions, Inc.
From: cmsig@yahoogroups.com [mailto:cmsig@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jack Vinson
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 1:30 PM
To: cmsig@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Yahoo cmsig] Re: Recent reading--Velocity and Simplifying Innovation
Mario-
I have to agree with you. Fortunately, the fact that they are very similar in style makes them easy to read. I finished Velocity on a long plane trip, and I think Isn’t It Obvious took several hours once I got into the flow. I also blew through another business novel in a completely different field recently – one that had a side-story, but not quite so involved. (And it was called a “fable” instead of a “novel.”)
Business novels are intended to be simplifications and introductions to the topic at hand. Even though there was little new-to-me in Isn’t It Obvious, I enjoyed seeing how the ideas could be synthesized and put together in a way that wasn’t straight from the guru’s mouth. Velocity did the same thing, I think. Of course the stories are forced, but isn’t that the point of any writing of this style. There is a moral to the story, and the authors use a good sized hammer to bring it home.
I see Steve Holt has said this and more in his note. Good stuff.
And this has nothing to do with being politically correct. TOC authors need to be subject to the same criticism any other authors.
Jack
From: cmsig@yahoogroups.com [mailto:cmsig@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mario López de Ávila Muñoz
Sent: Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:45 PM
To: cmsig@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Yahoo cmsig] Re: Recent reading--Velocity and Simplifying Innovation
Dear friends,
Please, let me share with you a sincere, even if politically incorrect, thought.
I have bought [and read] all the TOC novels published until today.
I have to say, I am tired of them. I cannot afford to read 200 or 300 pages each time to get only a few, half a dozen, ideas, even when are so good ideas like those are.
Simply put, there are too many things to read and see and listen and we need even more time to think about them, to “digest” them.
I have to take in account the “value obtained / effort made” ratio, or, if you prefer, throughput / hours, since I am, after all, my own capacity constrained resource.
I have just finished “Isn’t It Obvious” and, seriously, Dr. Goldratt could tell us the same in a 20 pages paper or less.
This morning I have started “Velocity” and, after reading Larry’s comment a week ago, I have jumped directly at page 197.
Thanks, Larry. And Thanks for the abstract, Steve.
I am afraid “Simplifying innovation” is the last business novel I buy for a long, long time.
Best regards,
Mario
De: cmsig@yahoogroups.com [mailto:cmsig@yahoogroups.com] En nombre de Alejandro Garcia
Enviado el: sábado, 06 de febrero de 2010 21:31
Para: cmsig@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: Re: [Yahoo cmsig] Re: Recent reading--Velocity and Simplifying Innovation
PC = Politically Correct
WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Santiago Velásquez Martínez <ifsavel@...> wrote:
Larry, clarity on PC and WASP?
On 3 February 2010 22:41, lawrence_leach <larry@...> wrote:
Hi, Steve
I started Velocity at page 197. Since they hadn't gotten on to improvement at the point, I never went back to read the first half. Thank's for the fill in. I do not feel I missed anything.
Well it certaily seems Eli has caused a movement of TOC people to write novels. I don't know of any Lean or Six Sigma novels. Maybe that has something to do with why they are adopted so much more and faster than TOC?
Its nice to know all such novels are now PC. If they make movies, we wouuld probably find the woman wasn't a WASP and is lesbian.
Regards,
Larry Leach
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