CHAD - I know you’ve listened to the podcast some, you know I love innovation quotes, so I asked you to bring one too. What’s the quote you have for us? JOHN - So I had to bring a different one this time, and I thought the one that fit what we were talking about the best was one that I think is attributable to Peter Skillman at IDEO. But I could …
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by John Latham
Empathy Maps – The Key to Creating Value
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of another person. It is the key to creating value for multiple stakeholders. While we often ask customers and other stakeholders directly what they want, they often cannot tell us what they want. They might try to tell us, but there are two problems with asking …
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by John Latham
Understanding the Organization as a System
Using a system to understand and lead an organization is not a new idea - it is at least 2,500 years old. According to Mo-Tze (a.k.a. Miscius) a Chinese philosopher around 500 B.C.E. Whoever pursues a business in this world must have a system. A business which has attained success without a system does not exist. From ministers and generals down …
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by John Latham
Organization Systems without People Don’t Exist
While Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and others, have estimated that the organizational system is responsible for a large percentage of problems and performance in organizations (70-85%), it is not at all clear how he (or the others) came to this conclusion nor if it is based on any empirical evidence. Organizational systems do not exist without the humans …
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by John Latham
System of Profound Knowledge
It seems obvious that our organizations, and the environments that they operate in, are complex and dynamic. Yet, there appears to be an insatiable appetite for simple answers. Unfortunately, many to most simplistic solutions don’t work. As Dr. W. Edwards Deming used to say, “there is no substitute for knowledge.” In the latter part of his life, …