Author: Jan Höglund
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The ‘totalitarian’ tendency of systems theory
I have written in a previous post that systems thinking makes me uneasy. It’s treating organizations as machines, and people as machine parts, which I criticize. This is why I’m searching for better ways of working. I find Henri Bortoft’s view very interesting. He writes that: “Systems thinking is often presented as a revolution in…
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Organizational metamorphosis
Goethe’s Way of Science makes it possible to see the continuous form and metamorphosis of the growing plant. What I’m wondering about is whether organizations are like plants? If so, this has profound implications on how we see and think about organizations. Henri Bortoft writes in The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe’s Way of Science (page…
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Naturens helhet
Jag har börjat läsa The Wholeness of Nature – Goethe’s Way of Science av Henri Bortoft. Poängen är att det finns olika typer av medvetande. I vår teknisk-vetenskapliga kultur har vi traditionellt fokuserat på det analytiska medvetandet som naturligt fokuserar på distinktion och separation. Det analytiska medvetandet associeras med språket. Språket uppbygnad grammatiskt i subjekt-predikat…
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Visual facilitation
The Graphic Facilitator’s Guide: How to use your listening, thinking and drawing skills to make meaning by Brandy Agerbeck is about serving a group of people by making the conversation visual. This helps the group to become more focused and attentive, which in turn helps the group to create shared meaning and understanding. It’s a…
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Motivation – It’s not about the money
Research shows that the three factors which are most important in improving the performance of all tasks (except purely mechanical tasks) are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. John Schinnerer explains in Motivation – It’s Not About The Money how these factors are built into sociocratic organizations.
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Book Review: Daring greatly
Daring greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead is Brené Brown’s latest book. Brené explores what drives our fear of being vulnerable, how we are protecting ourselves from vulnerability, and – most importantly – how we can engage with vulnerability so that we can live our lives…
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Let’s take self-organization seriously
We are in the middle of December and the days are short up here in the northern part of Europe, but it’s not only a dark time of the year. I have recently encountered musings about the darkness in the world in the books I have read. Margaret Wheatley writes for example in her new…
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Så långt hemifrån
Jag har nyligen läst Margaret Wheatleys nya bok So Far from Home. I boken beskriver hon hur korruption och destruktivitet har kopplat sitt grepp om dagens värld, varför vårt politiska system inte kan hantera dagens komplexa problem och hur de som är redan är mäktiga kommer att förbli så för egen personlig vinnings. Margaret inbjuder…
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So far from home – An invitation to warriorship for the human spirit
I am reading Margaret Wheatley’s new book So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World. I have now reached Chapter 11, Controlling Complexity, which according to Margaret herself was the most difficult one to write because I as a reader might find it too dark to read. And it is really…
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Wholehearted living
Brené Brown has defined 10 Guideposts for Wholehearted Living. These guidesposts are to cultivate: Authenticity: Letting go of what people think Self-Compassion: Letting go of perfectionism A Resilient Spirit: Letting go of numbing and powerlessness Gratitude and Joy: Letting go of scarcity and fear of the dark Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting go of the…