Sonja Blignaut's blog

Peter Drucker is probably one of the greatest thinkers in management sciences over the last century.  I don't know if he ever explicitly wrote or spoke about complexity, but the man obviously "got it".  Consider what he wrote about "fact-based" decision making. 

I'm busy reading The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely (and really enjoying it).  In one of the chapters he reflects on work and meaning.  Can human beings find satisfaction and be engaged in work that pays well, but offers no meaning?

He unpacks two "types" of meaning:

"m"eaning - a feeling of being challenged by whatever our work is, and completing it to our own satisfaction vs

"M"eaning - a hope that someone else, potentially a significant someone, will find value in what we've done.  Maybe a hope that sometime, the wider world out there would benefit in some way from what we've done.

We unfortunately have to postpone the next Cognitive Edge accreditation training course that was planned for early November 2011. At this time, another date hasn't been decided upon, but it will probably be in the first quarter of 2012.

If you need to familiarise yourself with the Cognitive Edge methods or thinking urgently, please don't hesitate to contact us to discuss potential coaching options in the the interim.

As Jamie entrenched himself in the community of Huntington, it became clear how big and complex the task ahead of him really was.  The divide between the knowledge he wanted to impart to the community, and the level they were at at that time, were miles apart.  How do you educate a community about healthy eating habits if first graders couldn't identify a tomato (they insisted it was a potato) and many others (adults and children) did not know how to use a knife and fork after years of eating junk food that only require their hands. One of the key target audiences for Jamie's message, the schools, didn't even supply knives and forks in their cafeterias as the food on their menus didn't require them.  So simply changing the menu wouldn't work.

I love Jamie Oliver - he's by far my favorite celebrity chef.  Every since I first saw him stuff a leg of lamb, I knew he was my 'culinary muse'.  Over the last few years, he's been on a mission to change the eating habits of various communities, including schools in the UK and US.  

We love working with cartoonists and doing things differently.  We also believe that conversation is of much greater value than simply sitting passively listening to the guru's speak (as is the case in most conferences). 

I found this approach to conferencing, and also conference reporting really refreshing.  Let's hope that more and more conferences will be run this way!

I came across this great little video by our friends at Anecdote in Australia. I think Mark does a great job at explaining complexity and why it's important to business leaders today.

We are pleased to announce that TNL in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch Business School will be hosting Steve Bealing, CEO of Cognitive Edge from 8-10 March 2011 for the first ever Cognitive Edge accreditation training course to be held in Cape Town, South Africa.

One of the projects we're currently working on aims to measure the impact of school leadership development programmes.  The concept of principalship is quite interesting.  Many people think that schools have much to learn from business, especially in the realm of leadership.  I have some reservations about comparing school principals to CEO's, as I think there's a major difference in motivation between these two types of leaders.  I can see however, that the management skills required are similar.

Navigating the traffic here in SA can be quite a complex affair (as I'm sure is true in most other countries).  Traffic authorities make extensive use of traffic lights and other control mechanisms to regulate traffic, especially in urban areas.  I came across this interesing video the other day, about how allowing for self-regulation on busy roads often leads to less congestion and paradoxically, less road accidents.  I'm not sure if this will work in South Africa, but it certainly is an interesting idea ...