Teams Are Adaptive Systems

Teams Are Adaptive Systems PDF Author: Luca Dellanna
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
Teams do not act, but react. They learn not from words and speeches, but from their work environment. They respond to the incentives that are communicated through action, not words. Your decisions are important not just for their immediate result, but for the future behaviors they make more likely in your subordinates. In my experience, few managers use this phenomenon to their advantage, resulting in motivated and productive teams. Conversely, most either have no idea of this phenomenon or acknowledge it in theory but ignore it in practice. For example, here are some mistakes I see many managers make: Waiting too much to acknowledge something good that one of their subordinates did, with the result that in the meantime, he thinks, "I did it for nothing, no one even noticed," and learns the lesson that the next time he should put less effort. Not being specific enough while saying "good job" so that the wrong behavior is reinforced. Letting an ethics violation pass "just this one time" because it wasn't that much of a big deal, with the result that the rest of the team either resents the manager and the violator or begins violating core values. Allowing grey areas in performance standards, so that performance stabilizes on the lower bound. 12 Principles The book describes 12 principles for effective management, all analyzed through the lenses of "Teams Are Adaptive Systems, and your job as a manager is to give them a work environment to which they adapt positively." Each chapter ends with a few practical action items you can immediately put to use. About the author Luca Dellanna is an author, researcher, and management consultant. After a few years working in the consulting unit of DuPont, Luca opened a private practice in Turin, Italy. Luca's first book on management was "Best Practices For Operational Excellence." It was a principled book describing the Four Principles of Operational Excellence, the Eight Best Practices that embody them, and a Roadmap to achieve change. It got great reviews, such as the following one: "I'm a huge fan of High Output Management and Setting the Table [...] Luca's Best Practices for Operational Excellence took my management to the next level. It's been almost a month since I started implementing the principles, but I can already say that I've noticed a significant improvement in my company's morale [...] That feels amazing." - Molson Hart, Viahart CEO

Teams Are Adaptive Systems

Teams Are Adaptive Systems PDF Author: Luca Dellanna
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Get Book

Book Description
Teams do not act, but react. They learn not from words and speeches, but from their work environment. They respond to the incentives that are communicated through action, not words. Your decisions are important not just for their immediate result, but for the future behaviors they make more likely in your subordinates. In my experience, few managers use this phenomenon to their advantage, resulting in motivated and productive teams. Conversely, most either have no idea of this phenomenon or acknowledge it in theory but ignore it in practice. For example, here are some mistakes I see many managers make: Waiting too much to acknowledge something good that one of their subordinates did, with the result that in the meantime, he thinks, "I did it for nothing, no one even noticed," and learns the lesson that the next time he should put less effort. Not being specific enough while saying "good job" so that the wrong behavior is reinforced. Letting an ethics violation pass "just this one time" because it wasn't that much of a big deal, with the result that the rest of the team either resents the manager and the violator or begins violating core values. Allowing grey areas in performance standards, so that performance stabilizes on the lower bound. 12 Principles The book describes 12 principles for effective management, all analyzed through the lenses of "Teams Are Adaptive Systems, and your job as a manager is to give them a work environment to which they adapt positively." Each chapter ends with a few practical action items you can immediately put to use. About the author Luca Dellanna is an author, researcher, and management consultant. After a few years working in the consulting unit of DuPont, Luca opened a private practice in Turin, Italy. Luca's first book on management was "Best Practices For Operational Excellence." It was a principled book describing the Four Principles of Operational Excellence, the Eight Best Practices that embody them, and a Roadmap to achieve change. It got great reviews, such as the following one: "I'm a huge fan of High Output Management and Setting the Table [...] Luca's Best Practices for Operational Excellence took my management to the next level. It's been almost a month since I started implementing the principles, but I can already say that I've noticed a significant improvement in my company's morale [...] That feels amazing." - Molson Hart, Viahart CEO

Adaptive Action

Adaptive Action PDF Author: Glenda H. Eoyang
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804785406
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Rooted in the study of chaos and complexity, Adaptive Action introduces a simple, common sense process that will guide you and your organization into reflective action. This elegant method prompts readers to engage with three deceptively simple questions: What? So what? Now what? The first leads to careful observation. The second invites you to thoughtfully consider options and implications. The third ignites effective action. Together, these questions and the tools that support them produce a dynamic and creative dance with uncertainty. The road-tested steps of adaptive action can be used to devise solutions and improve performance across multiple challenges, and they have proven to be scalable from individuals to work groups, from organizations to communities. In addition to laying out the adaptive action framework and clear protocols to support it, Glenda H. Eoyang and Royce J. Holladay introduce best practices from exemplary professionals who have used adaptive action to meet personal, professional, and political challenges in leadership, consulting, Alzheimer's treatment, evaluation, education reform, political advocacy, and cultural engagement—readying readers to employ this new toolkit to meet their own goals with a sense of ingenuity and flexibility.

Digital Leadership

Digital Leadership PDF Author: Mario Franco
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789850355
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Digital leadership has been seen as a phenomenon allowing competitive advantages for organizations, but some studies do not include the risks, benefits, and challenges of this type of leadership. Consequently, the objective of this book is to fill this gap by combining several studies from different perspectives. The various chapters presented here follow several approaches and applications that researchers explore in different contexts. This book intends therefore to add to the body of knowledge in leadership and digital areas. On the other hand, this work shows how digital leadership can stimulate organizational development in various countries and regions worldwide.

Thriving at the Edge of Chaos

Thriving at the Edge of Chaos PDF Author: Jonathan Sapir
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000732479
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
For many organizations, the way in which projects are managed is a fundamental factor in how well they can prosper in today’s marketplace. Unfortunately, the current solutions available to companies for managing projects are proving to be increasingly ineffective in a complex world that is becoming more and more dynamic and unpredictable. Organization’s pay for this complexity in delayed time-to-market, slow response to customer needs, and decreased productivity. While tweaking the current project management paradigm may provide some minimal gains, to have a real impact requires a fundamental change in mindset. New business models like Uber and AirBnB show us that the most efficient operations in today’s business environment behave like complex adaptive systems (CAS) where self-managing participants, following a set of simple rules, organize themselves to solve incredibly complex problems. Instead of trying to function like a "well-oiled machine" where things "work like clockwork", companies like Uber function more like an organism that is alive and constantly changing. They fully embrace the characteristics of a CAS. Viewing an organization as a complex adaptive system drives a radically new philosophy of project management that is much better suited to the needs of the 21st-century organization and can provide the quantum leap improvement in project production that we are looking for. This book exposes the assumptions underlying the accepted paradigm of project management, describes the common practices that are based on those assumptions, analyzes why these practices are unhelpful and even harmful, and proposes an alternative, sometimes seemingly counter intuitive approach to project management based on CAS thinking. By the end of the book, the reader will have a completely new perspective on the way projects can be managed in their organization, and how they can quickly start reaping the benefits provided by a CAS-driven management methodology and supporting toolset that is more in tune with today’s business demands - and that turns complexity into a competitive advantage.

Social Sustainability, Past and Future

Social Sustainability, Past and Future PDF Author: Sander van der Leeuw
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108498698
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
A novel, integrated approach to understanding long-term human history, viewing it as the long-term evolution of human information-processing. This title is also available as Open Access.

Complex Enterprise Architecture

Complex Enterprise Architecture PDF Author: John D. McDowall
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1484243064
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Implement successful and cost-effective enterprise architecture projects. This book provides a new approach to developing enterprise architecture based on the idea of emergent behaviors—where instead of micromanaging system implementation, the enterprise architecture effort establishes clear goals and leaves the details to the implementation teams. System development efforts are measured based on their contribution to achieving business goals instead of implementing specific (possibly outdated) requirements. Most enterprise architecture initiatives employ one of the existing system architecture frameworks such as Zachman or The Open Group Architecture Framework, but these are not well-suited for enterprise architecture in a modern, agile organization. The new approach presented in this book is based on the author’s experience with large enterprise architecture efforts. The approach leverages research into complex adaptive systems and emergent behaviors, where a few simple rules result in complex and efficient enterprise behaviors. Simplifying the task of establishing and maintaining the enterprise architecture cuts the costs of building and maintaining the architecture and frees up those resources for more productive pursuits. System implementers are given the freedom to rapidly adapt to changing user needs without the blessing of the enterprise modeling priesthood, and the architecture is transformed from a static pile of obscure models and documents into an operational framework that can be actively used to manage an enterprise’s resources to better achieve business goals. The enterprise architect is free to stop focusing on building and maintaining models and start focusing on achieving business goals. What You’ll Learn Refocus enterprise architecture on business needs by eliminating most of the enterprise-level models Delegate tasks to the development teams who do system implementation Document business goals, establish strategies for achieving those goals, and measure progress toward those goals Measure the results and gauge whether the enterprise architecture is achieving its goals Utilize appropriate modeling techniques that can be effectively used in an enterprise architecture Who This Book Is For Architecture practitioners and architecture managers: Practitioners are experienced architects who have used existing frameworks such as Zachman, and have experience with formal architecture modeling and/or model-based system engineering; managers are responsible for managing an enterprise architecture project and either have experience with enterprise architecture projects that were ineffective or are looking for a different approach that will be more cost-effective and allow for more organizational agility. Government program managers looking for a different approach to make enterprise architecture more relevant and easier to implement will also find this book of value.

Complex Adaptive Leadership

Complex Adaptive Leadership PDF Author: Mr Nick Obolensky
Publisher: Gower Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 147244793X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Complex Adaptive Leadership, a Gower bestseller, has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, the author argues that leadership is a complex dynamic process and should involve all those engaged in a particular enterprise. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors, and in this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world.

Intelligent Adaptive Systems

Intelligent Adaptive Systems PDF Author: Ming Hou
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1466517255
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
As ubiquitous as the atmosphere, intelligent adaptive systems (IASs) surround us in our daily lives. When designed well, these systems sense users and their environments so that they can provide support in a manner that is not only responsive to the evolving situation, but unnoticed by the user. A synthesis of recent research and developments on IASs from the human factors (HF) and human–computer interaction (HCI) domains, Intelligent Adaptive Systems: An Interaction-Centered Design Perspective provides integrated design guidance and recommendations for researchers and system developers. The book explores a recognized lack of integration between the HF and HCI research communities, which has led to inconsistencies between the research approaches adopted, and a lack of exploitation of research from one field by the other. The authors integrate theories and methodologies from these domains to provide design recommendations for human–machine developers. They then establish design guidance through the review of conceptual frameworks, analytical methodologies, and design processes for intelligent adaptive systems. The book draws on case studies from the military, medical, and distance learning domains to illustrate intelligent system design to examine lessons learned. Outlining an interaction-centered perspective for designing an IAS, the book details methodologies for understanding human work in complex environments and offers understanding about why and how optimizing human–machine interaction should be central to the design of IASs. The authors present an analytical and design methodology as well as an implementation strategy that helps you choose the proper design framework for your needs.

Small Groups as Complex Systems

Small Groups as Complex Systems PDF Author: Holly Arrow
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1452238502
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
"The emphasis on change at many levels of organization is critically important as is the first attempt to integrate sophisticated theory and research in organization psychology (e.g., Gersick, Hackman) with social psychological models of development such as Moreland and Levine." --Reuben M. Baron, Emeritus, University of Connecticut "Arrow, McGrath, and Berdahl′s ′Small Groups as Complex Systems′ will change the way you think about groups, the way you think about research, and even the way you think about science." --Donelson R. Forsyth, Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth U "The book is excellent, one of those very rare works that will have substantial impact on the field. I would use the book without hesitation in any advanced graduate seminar dealing with groups." --Donelson R. Forsyth, Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth U "A conceptually elegant analysis of groups as systems. Although the systems approach has been growing more influential in various fields of social psychology in the last ten years, no one has put forward a definitive analysis that applies with fidelity the general systems approach to group processes. McGrath and his colleagues fill that gap, not by paying lip service to popular scientific concepts such as recursive causality, open systems, attractors, and complexity theory, but by fully integrating these concepts into their no-nonsense analysis of such group level processes as formation, task performance, composition, development, and termination. Empirical work is folded into the theoretical mix along the way, but the focus is unrelentingly conceptual with the result that the authors deliver on their promise of developing a powerful, unified theory of group dynamics." --Donelson R. Forsyth, Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth U "Theirs is an ambitious book. They have profound ramifications for experimental social psychology. It is worth mentioning that AMD (Arrow, McGrarth, and Berdahl) list an ethnographic approach, which often implies the adoption of hermeneutic and semiotic methods (a hallmark of the anti-Enlightenment tradition in psychology), as a possible way forward." --Yoshihisa Kashima, American Journal of Psychology What are groups? How do they behave? Arrow, McGrath, and Berdahl answer these questions by developing a general theory of small groups as complex systems. Basing their theory on concepts distilled from general systems theory, dynamical systems theory, and complexity and chaos theory, they explore groups as adaptive, dynamic systems that are driven by interactions among group members as well as between the group and its embedding contexts. In addition, they consider not only the group′s members and their distribution of attributes, but also the group′s tasks and technology in order to understand how those members, tasks, and tools are intertwined, coordinated, and adjusted. Throughout the book, the authors focus our attention on relationships among people, tools, and tasks that are activated by a combination of individual and collective purposes and goals that change and evolve as the group interacts over time.

Dynamic Reteaming

Dynamic Reteaming PDF Author: Heidi Helfand
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1492061247
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Your team will change whether you like it or not. People will come and go. Your company might double in size or even be acquired. In this practical book, author Heidi Helfand shares techniques for reteaming effectively. Engineering leaders will learn how to catalyze team change to reduce the risk of attrition, learning and career stagnation, and the development of knowledge silos. Based on research into well-known software companies, the patterns in this book help CTOs and team managers effectively integrate new hires into an existing team, manage a team that has lost members, or deal with unexpected change. You’ll learn how to isolate teams for focused innovation, rotate team members for knowledge sharing, break through organizational apathy, and more. You’ll explore: Real-world examples that demonstrate why and how organizations reteam Five reteaming patterns: One by One, Grow and Split, Isolation, Merging, and Switching Tactics to help you master dynamic reteaming in your company Stories that demonstrate problems caused by reteaming anti-patterns