FastCompany puts the finger on an important reason why many companies have a hard time coming up with more innovative behaviors: “here’s the truth: most companies can’t innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo. This is the single biggest reason companies fail to do anything new or exciting” via Stop Blabbing About Innovation […]
Author Archives: Tobias Fors
Interview with Ricardo Semler
Here’s an inspiring video interview with Ricardo Semler from Semco, about creating a democratic corporation. And a lecture with Semler: Also, a conversation between Henry Mintzberg and Semler:
Late Again, Thinking About the Cost of Delays
It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m on the train heading to Stockholm. The train is late, and it’s not the first time. One reason delays annoy me so much is that they break my expectations. I’ve made my plans to fit with the train company’s timetable, and now they are not upholding their part of the […]
Johanna Rothman to Stockholm, May 30, 2012
Author, consultant and teacher Johanna Rothman is coming to Stockholm on May 30, this year. She will be leading a one-day workshop about the agile project portfolio. The course will be in English, and I highly recommend you check it out if you need some inspiration on how to manage in a situation where you […]
Vision and Execution: Apple’s Plan to Kill The Mouse
I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a fanboy. Maybe not so much an Apple fanboy as a software fanboy. My fascination with software goes back to the very first time I had a computer demonstrated to me as a kid, and today, Apple is probably the only company whose products give me that feeling […]
Systems Thinking Applied to Management with Russell Ackoff
If you’re a student of Russell Ackoff’s teachings, you should rapidly click yourself over to the Ackoff Center blog, where you will find a link to a rich set of video lectures with Ackoff himself: “When the course was announced the registration requests were so high that a lottery with random drawing had to be established […]
Release More Often Without Risking Anything
Joakim Holm has written an awesome post about breaking through the wall of conventional thinking, smashing a dilemma into pieces, and finding a third option along the way. One day soon they realize that “Hey, we’re pretty good. We can take advantage of that and release more often without risking anything.” via Breaking through the […]
Talk: Problems and systems thinking
Here’s me talking (in Swedish) about how we look at problems from a systems thinking viewpoint, at Lean Tribe 2. Lean Tribe Gathering #2: Tobias Fors from Lean Tribe on Vimeo.
Experiential Learning (No More “Silentium”)
Over the last five years, I’ve taught lots of classes to lots of people. If I knew it before, I’m convinced of it now: lecturing is not the most effective way to help others truly learn. The problem with lecturing is that it doesn’t really do much to change someone’s behavior, at least not in […]
Pit of Specialization
In an effort to prove I’m not a perfectionist, I’m publishing this work of art I just created, while sketching out some ideas for an upcoming talk. Being a specialist can be a double-edged sword. Have you experienced this pit? Did you like it there, or did you find a way to get out of […]