Category: Organization

  • Iain McGilchrist on control

    The following quote is from a conversation between Iain McGilchrist and Ameer Shaheed in May 2023. It is part of a series of conversations exploring McGilchrist’s philosophy as laid out in The Matter with Things. (My emphasis in italics.) I would go so far as to say that control, which is the single value of…

  • Dee Hock on forming a chaordic organization

    Birth of the Chaordic Age by Dee Hock is one of my favorite books. The Prologue: On the Nature and Creation of Charodic organizations is particularly interesting. A reprint with permission can be found here. Chaordic organizing is about releasing what people desire in the depth of their being, the passion they have for it,…

  • Henri Bortoft on wholeness in organizations

    Simon Robinson inspired me to read Henri Bortoft’s two books The Wholeness of Nature and Taking Appearance Seriously. While reading these books I was struck by the thought that in order to see life in work we need to a dynamic way of seeing. I am currently re-reading Simon Robinson and Maria Moraes Robinson’s book…

  • New orders reflect new values

    The world crumbles. New orders are emerging. Conditions are getting worse and worse. There is less and less to hold on to. There are fewer givens to assume. How to live? What to do? How to organize? The world is falling apart. Fear deepens as necessary orders are lost. Events force rapid reassessment of everything,…

  • Two work perspectives

    Watts Humphrey and Dee Hock are two pioneers, in different areas, and in different ways. They also have two very different ways of seeing work. Watts Humphrey: Work is, or has to be, repeatable Watts Humphrey provides his view on process improvement in Three Process Perspectives: Organizations, Teams, and People (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Annals of…

  • Henri Bortoft on human organizations and relationships

    IntroductionHenri Bortoft is the author The Wholeness of Nature and Taking Appearance Seriously. I am particularly interested in the ‘dynamic way of seeing’ which is explained at length by Henri Bortoft. Taking the ‘appearance’ seriously is necessary if we want to see ‘life’ in nature and in work. Henri Bortoft mentions in Taking Appearance Seriously…

  • Organizing reflection 25

    This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject.…

  • Organizing reflection 21

    This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject.…

  • Organizing reflection 20

    This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject.…

  • Organizing reflection 19

    This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject.…