October 2007
The Archives
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10.29.07Macroshift (Ervin Laszlo) — Doomsday or Breakthrough?I'm only through the first two chapters of Ervin Laszlo's book Macroshift, but thought I'd better post these snippets before I get caught-up in the flow of the week. I came across this through a client who pointed to this as the best description of what their work is responding to. I couldn't agree more... and know a few others that will feel the same way... and am hoping more people will join those ranks. The Four Phases of a Macroshift are the core theory and pretty easy to follow and digest. They are also applied directly to our current ...
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10.26.07The early days of the Internet – an original CBC news story.I just caught this in Beth's BlogWow... how far we've come, in such short time, and yet how relevant the social observations remain today. Blogged with Flock
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10.25.07Higlights from "Heart of Enterprise" — the Viable System ModelI've been working my way through this tome for a few weeks and have had a number of conversations around it. It's by far the most valuable piece of work I've ever encountered on organizational design --- and for me a critical model in ventures that are on the venturing frontier (early concept stage and/or systemic co-creation -- see graph below). Written by Stafford Beer, this book is a thorough walk-through of the Viable System Model.The key principles can be found here, but will not likely be that helpful without gaining an understanding of the language ...
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10.22.07Awaiting the accounting revolution.I've been twittering my frustrations today. I have a fairly simple financial situation and have 2 companies that I process both Shawna's and my work through. There's nothing complex with either of them so I've been filing the taxes and handling the bookkeeping myself since the beginning except for a short stint where I outsourced the annual filings. My frustration is that doing it myself is harder than it should be. Bookkeeping/accounting software is far more cumbersome and antequated than it should be, and it costs too much for things that should be free (tax table updates and payroll functionality).Really, ...
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10.22.07A good point – enough with the debate on climate change.This is a nice argument for stopping the debate on climate change and getting on with it. I don't believe in the only answer to be policy change but it is an important one. The basic argument is this:- we can't know for certain whether or not we are impacting climate change or what will happen- we can only choose whether or not we are going to do something about it- that choice really comes down to an assessment of the risk in acting or not- if we act, worst case is economic downturn- if we don't act, worst case ...
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10.21.07Dress code? Ugghhh…As time goes on I increasingly consider clothing first and foremost about function and comfort. For me this means jeans as my primary leg wear and then anything that doesn't need ironing for my tops. And for footwear it's either my Crocs or Blundstones for sheer practicality. For some client work though, I still feel the need to at least put on a 'dress-shirt' and some other pants. On rare occasion - like the social finance forum - I'll break-out a suit. Every time I do this though it really makes me wonder. What's the point? As long as clothing ...
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10.19.07Black CottonI've long know a lot about the coffee industry and had heard snippets of what's going on in cotton too... but this sure is a wakeup call.
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10.02.07Venturing forward.So now with intellectual models for aligning a venture around a purposeful response to a deep calling, and for designing a viable organizational system it begs the question - now what?Investment. Investment of capital... intellectual, social, and financial.In ideal clean slate this might look something like this:identify a callinggather a group of diverse though leaders and community members to explore/deepen the callingconduct an 'externalities analysis'reconvene a modified group to:uncover a responsive purposeconcieve of a theory of changeand anchor it with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.conduct an 'internalities analysis'design the viable systemreconvene a modified group to:craft strategic directionsestablish near-term action ...
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10.02.07Viable System Model – the second fulcrum.The second fulcrum in transformative venturing is the way in which the venture is organized/organizes itself. I've recently been introduced into something that has come closest to describing what it means to build a successful organization. And it's not about outcomes or results - those are simply that, outcomes - it's about the way in which it's done.(Stafford Beer's) Viable Systems Model, or VSM is a model of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. ...
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10.01.07Venture VortexOver the years I've been collecting management theories and practices that I found useful in venturing and found myself starting to organize them into a map. That map started painting a picture that has now become the Venture Vortex model.It's primary strength is in providing a platform to organize thinking around the process of building a venture and I am using it both as a design and a diagnostic tool.Broken into 4 primary regions: internalities; externalities, core ideology and the vortex itself, the arrows and chevrons show of sequencing of rational thought in the design process. Of course, no ...
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Tumblog
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Igniter published Reporting & Analytics | Rally Software Development.
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Igniter shared Olympics still alive in the coffeeshop..
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Igniter shared Patriotic munchkin window art.
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Igniter shared Showdown time. Cumon ->.
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Igniter shared A welcoming entrance in the snow..
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Igniter published Interesting mobile neighborhood messaging service....
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