HBS Response 070507

Diagnosis is complex and inductive rather than deductive. The list of all possible diagnoses is long, much longer than one person can know. In seeking diagnoses, clinicians are looking for an action path: to prevent, treat, mitigate, palliate and/or prognosticate. Treating and healing are different things and sometimes simply naming a problem is enough for a patient.

 

What can managers learn? Not all things are knowable; not all things are fixable; humans are finite. Logic does not serve and experience always counts. All acts involve trade-offs, costs and benefits. And judgement is very fragile.

 

None of the above is actionable.

 

So, the essential lesson is this: life is uncertain, still you must act – in humility – because you are likelier to be wrong than right. Act and reflect. Outcomes direct actions, but intent is paramount. As Musashi observed, action is distilled intent.

 

HBS Response: What do readers think May 2006

 

What are worker benefits? We all strive for health, wealth and fulfilling leisure.

 

Technological developments drive higher quality living: life in 2006 is orders of magnitude better than life in 1906 – for the wealthiest and the poorest.

 

Paid work supports health, allows for the accumulation of wealth and is generally a prerequisite for fulfilling leisure. It also promotes social gender equality, reduces the number of children women have, and improves women’s health and longevity.

 

Higher employment drives consumption which drives technological development which improves quality of life.

 

Regarding social sector effects it is to be remembered that for most of us, in our striving for health, wealth and fulfilling leisure, we do not do the small things that need to be done consistently. It is the complex cumulative of individual actions and omissions that produce individual health, wealth and fulfilling leisure not the actions of large corporates.

 

Before criticising, we should examine carefully the social sector effects of wage deflation and higher productivity. In all ecologies things are not simple.

HBS Response: What do readers think September 2005

Two things come to mind. Plans are nothing; Planning is everything! And, the right people on the right vehicle before you select the right destination.

 

The rate of change accelerates and the number of disasters are only going to increase (natural and otherwise). Events cannot be predicted with a long lead time.

 

Every organisation needs to be more flexible, more modular, more adaptable. Large organisations especially, need to be reconfigured.

 

Lessons: The future is unpredictable; trust and credibility are crucially dependant on time to response - respond promptly.