January 6 PERSONAL REPORTS FROM THE SWAMP John Maynard Keynes, Economist: On the Great Depression of 1929-1939 We have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand. Steve Rothmeier, Former CEO of Northwest Airlines I thought… Read More »
December 15 On a sweltering morning in June, 1976, Jerome Groopman, a newly graduated MD, put on his starched white coat, placed a stethoscope in his black bag, and reported for duty. At the time, he wasn’t fully aware that he was entering a swamp. He soon found out! He had spent the previous four… Read More »
December 1 In the Land of Opportunity, Achievement and Despair where professional people spend their working days, there is a high, hard ground and a swamp. On the high, hard ground there is firm footing, good light, and useful, effective tools with which to work. Conditions in the swamp are dramatically different: There is… Read More »
November 9 When it comes to working on problems, and especially wicked ones, a key insight is “Structure is Always Better than Good Intentions!” Success with problems is tied directly to creating a structured process for finding and attacking problems. In the last post, I described two structured approaches to finding and dealing with organizational… Read More »
October 20 During the difficult days of World War II, one of the most popular songs on everyone’s lips was an up-beat, optimistic, “sunny-side-of-the-street” tune by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer called Accentuate the Positive. Introduced by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in the 1944 movie, Here Come the Waves, it was sung in the… Read More »
September 30 Many people are afflicted with a dangerous and misguided myth: Rugged Individualism. They insist that they are independent, self-reliant, and able to make it by themselves, without any help from others. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our lives are entirely dependent upon others in almost all ways, from the… Read More »
September 5 While traveling though the desert sands of Arabia on his camel, a Bedouin chief noticed in the distance a small herd of camels. As he approached, he saw near the camels three men shouting and waving their hands. “What seems to be the trouble?” asked the Bedouin. “Our father has recently died and… Read More »
August 19 Anyone who must deal with wicked problems on a regular basis (and that includes all of us) must come to grips with three questions: What are we to do with them? Who should do it? How is it done? What are we to do? In an earlier post I suggested that the best… Read More »
July 10, 2014 Problems are either wicked or tame concluded Horst Rittle and Melvin Webber in the early 1970’s, an insight that has turned out not only to be interesting, but central to all attempts to solve problems. Whether a problem is one or the other determines everything that follows: what should be done, by… Read More »
June 25, 2014 There’s a story about a man who sought out the Buddha for help. He was unhappy with his life. There was nothing overwhelmingly terrible about his life, but it seemed full of an endless succession of little disappointments, struggles and complaints. He was a farmer, and a good one. He enjoyed farming.… Read More »