Holistic management – understanding organizations as systems

From the past to the present

• There is still a lot of the industrial age in our organizations... and that's a good thing.
• From controlling to understanding: how old management approaches are reaching their limits and what matters today.
• Complex vs. complicated: Learn to apply what is perhaps the most important distinction in management.
• The Cynefin Framework: finding the right leadership and decision-making tool for each challenge.

The organization as a socio-technical system

• Understanding complexity: Thinking tools that help you recognize patterns instead of fighting symptoms.
• Various explanations at the individual, team, and organizational levels.
• Organization and its metaphors.
• Digression on AI: What ethical questions need to be answered?

The right focus for clarity

• Why we prefer to talk in terms of ratings and what gets lost in the process.
• The key skill in dealing with complexity is easy to observe.
• A day without problems is a wasted day. Good problem descriptions are important.
• "We make the world ..." How we construct the world and why that is relaxing.

Leadership is a team effort

• Leadership as a social dynamic: sharing responsibility, decentralizing decisions, strengthening teams.
• Our view of humanity determines our actions and our leadership style.
• The role of "leadership" and its responsibilities.

Change and its myths

• Culture cannot be directly shaped, but it can be influenced.
• Recognize and understand cultural patterns and intervene deliberately.
• Working on the system instead of on people.
• Sustainability is a matter for top management.