Sunday, September 12, 2010

Better Informed, Better Connected, Better Decisions

As I prepare for the presentation I am giving on Thursday the 16th (four days away!), I have been reviewing a lot of the relevant material on organizational and management theory, and the science underlying it. I also find myself trying to find a better short hand synopsis as to "what is it all about?".
While there is a lot to the process I developed and want to continue to develop, the 'output', so to speak, is people and organizations will have a trustworthy process to be "better informed, better connected, making better decisions" as they proceed along the paths of being leaders and winners in this rapidly evolving social-economic environment in which we want to thrive.

One reason I feel confident in the ability to say my process (and myself along with it) can help any person or any organization adapt and thrive, is I am very hard pressed to think of any person or any organization that cannot benefit from being better informed and better connected so as to make better decisions.
The key, however, is in the process.
Not all information is useful. Not all networks or 'connectedness' brings the same value.

It is the dedication, the "buy in" to a process of my "three pillars" approach of 1) a systems thinking point of view, 2) personal and organizational learning, and 3), connecting the people, ideas, intelligence, diversity of views (that diversity is a major key) in a rich social media networked environment as a systematic process to gaining the knowledge from the information, having that knowledge 'survive' an ecology of opinion, insight, experience, etc, and connecting that to the right group that can turn knowledge into action.

Why a process? We all have our blind spots, we all have confirmation bias, as groups we can suffer from group think, our egos and political agendas can all get in the way of making better decisions. Systems thinking along with personal and organizational learning is a means to overcome these kinds of decision making detriments.

Any person or organization can use this process to enhance and further their own goals. This in itself is powerful, but if we also do this with a systems thinking perspective where the overall sustainability of the larger systems in which we operate is enhanced as well, then we all win.

Connecting as many people and organizations as we can, in an ecological network of a common philosophy around a trusted process has tremendous potential to deepen relationships across many boundaries, more importantly, is the kind of creativity, innovation, and re-invigorated personal investment in ourselves and our organizations that can make a vital difference to the quality of life of any community, city, or region.

In very short, what we are developing is an ever deepening process of connecting the rich, under-tapped 'vein' of talent, skills, ideas, and qualities in people out there to the organizations that can make them a productive force in society. These under tapped people can be within an organization, or outside, they can be their customers, or their management. That person could be you.

I will say this time and again, the quality of our future life is directly dependent on the quality of our people and our organizations. To tap into those latent qualities is dependent to a large degree on the quality of the process.

This is the kind of sustainability that we can all grow with.

3 comments:

  1. Certainly am looking forward to the talk on Thursday night!

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  2. Quite enjoyed the seminar, as did my daughter! An excellent first step for you - and for we the audience!

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  3. Thanks for attending, and thanks for commenting! I'm glad you found it engaging!

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