Current subject: Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #36

Subscribe for nice formating at https://www.getrevue.co/profile/antlerboyWhat I most want to draw your attention to is some work we’re doing with the LGA - if you are involved in Commissioning, please see below and get in touch! Supporting strategic commissioning Supporting Adult Social Care Commissioners – Strategic Commissioning Options AppraisalWorking on behalf of the LGA, the … Continue reading Current subject: Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #36 →

We can ‘level up’ by transforming commissioning

It’s absolutely critical to work with the voluntary, #community, and social enterprise sector if we’re going to achieve anything with ‘#levellingup’. What do you think is most important to enable this and transform our communities and our lives for the better? As well as the brilliant work we do at the Public Service Transformation Academy … Continue reading We can ‘level up’ by transforming commissioning →

Can you see the courtly rituals still at work in our organisations and management?

The annual review: where I come before your throne (well, desk) and you tell me two things: you own me, and I’m insufficient.Peter Block Human resources, or dealing with the King? Our organisations and workplaces still draw, for better or worse, from the rich heritage of royalty. This has huge implications for innovation and shaping … Continue reading Can you see the courtly rituals still at work in our organisations and management? →

Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #35

Things seem to be getting busy in my work (in all dimensions). And the work we’re doing at both the Public Service Transformation Academy and RedQuadrant is really interesting, worthwhile stuff - evaluations of critical programmes around domestic abuse, mentoring for heads of library services, feasibility studies for community hubs, inclusive commissioning, continual improvement capability … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #35 →

Thriving in the space of service – for consultants, coaches, facilitators, business partners…

Thriving in the space of service — for consultants, coaches, facilitators, business partners… Have you ever been asked to help, and ended up feeling abused and misused? Why did it go that way? Whether you’re part of a bunch of #consultants dealing with a #management issue, a coach, mentor, a friend, an HR or Finance Business Partner, or … Continue reading Thriving in the space of service – for consultants, coaches, facilitators, business partners… →

What do you want to read from me?

The below is posted on LinkedIn, which has been the driver for my blogging - I put all my pieces, usually twice-weekly, on http://www.chosen-path.org for the open web and https://antlerboy.medium.com/ (and then weekly I do a newsletter summary of the pieces and a few others links I've shared on Twitter and through https://stream.syscoi.com/, and share … Continue reading What do you want to read from me? →

Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #34

See this properly formatted, and subscribe, at https://www.getrevue.co/profile/antlerboy This week Rethinking agency Second-order thinking Understanding understanding The WELL: the state of the world Love Becomes A Savage / Always Never Locking our perspective to what we can see The beginning of heaven and Earth has no name Learning from experience: toward consciousness How our perspective … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #34 →

Looking where we see

What’s your example of an organisation spending time and energy like the drunk in the story, ‘looking for the keys under the lamp-post’? We miss the opportunities for innovation and creativity all the time we look where we know the answers. A police officer sees someone drunkenly searching under a streetlight. ‘What have you lost?’ … Continue reading Looking where we see →

improvement, legibility, ecosystems and change

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor's avatarSystems Community of Inquiry

In my talks about ‘commissioning’, ‘leadership’, ‘transformation’, and ‘systems thinking’, I often show people a picture of a bridge and a river – to start a conversation about how we are dealing with living systems rather than mechanistic ones. And to get people to think about the dangers of creating ‘improvements’ that depend on intentional, ‘rational’ control in a system where complexity and the ecosystemic nature has been destroyed by the demand for legibility. (And, since people come up with their own ideas, it often illustrates a lot more).

This example from David Chapman is a brilliant illustration of what this is actually about – a likely ‘water improvement scheme’, destroying a sustainable, beautiful (I presume) beaver dam has created an unsustainable system – but one shaped

It’s yet another example of how we systemically prefer the illusion of control to the possibility of allowing:
https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/991098498282999809

(cf the normalbaum /…

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When have you seen someone change their position — and suddenly change their perspective?

The arrogant superstar suddenly brought low? The ardent Trade Unionist promoted to manager? The contract manager for the contact centre was at breaking point. ‘Those bastards! We told them about this change three weeks ago. They haven’t trained, they haven’t resourced, they’re blaming the service, and I know they’re going to use this as an excuse … Continue reading When have you seen someone change their position — and suddenly change their perspective? →