Articles Arranged by Theme
Business Culture
Computers & Internet Culture
Corporate Change
Corporate Environmentalism
Corporate Governance
Education
Ghost Stories
Learning Histories
Management
Media and Advertising
Organizational Change
Scenario Planning
Suicide
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Business Culture
The Bottom Line on Ethics
strategy+business (4th Quarter 2001)
pdf
version
"Ethics, in the end, is not something we do. It is something we
become."
This column starts with Fast Food Nation, a terrific look at abuse --
and then asks, Why didn't it make a difference within the industry? Is
it just greed? Or is it the absence of a background culture of ethics
-- cf. Good Work (Howard Gardner et al), Counting What Counts (Epstein
and Birchard), and Crossing The Unknown Sea (David Whyte). (read
article...)
The Cult of Three Cultures
strategy+business (3rd Quarter 2001)
pdf version
Edgar Schein, hero to organizational development people, has a theory of "three cultures of management:" CEO culture (financially-oriented), engineer culture (technically-oriented, skeptical of people), and operations culture (full of belief in people and little else). The clash between these cultures, he says, is what paralyzes organizations. Very persuasive stuff, particularly when you consider the deeper long-term implications. (read article...)
Should a Company have a Noble Purpose
Across the Board (Jan 2001)
Coauthored with George Roth and Nina Kruschwitz, this outgrowth of learning history work describes the pinnacle of social responsibility: Seeking a goal that nobody else is ready to take on. (read article - this pdf file is 500Kb)
The Cores that Wield Corporate Power
Across the Board (Jan 2001)
Across the Board conducted a survey of some key people about the essence
of social responsibility. Here is my reply, straight out of Core Group
theory. (read
article...)
The Three Faces of Dow
Garbage Magazine (Jul/Aug 1991)
I am truly proud of this article -- an in-depth look at Dow Chemical's
claim to be an "environmental company" in the 1980s, a company
that "lets you do great things." There are three separate cultures
in most companies, I think -- one that barricades itself in, one that
tries to sell itself, and one that genuinely learns. Which will prevail?
(read article...)
The Age of Mistrust
Marketing Week (August 1988)
Josh Levine, now at Forbes, was once the editor of Marketing Week. He
commissioned me to investigate the changing culture of the ad business
-- from collegiality and mutual care to out-and-out mistrust. These days,
I would put it differently: The Core Group shifted.
(read article...)
The Culture of Marketing and the Marketing of Culture
Whole Earth Review, (Spring 1987)
Marketing people are… different from you and me. Even if
you and me are marketing people. Here is a guide to five principles inherent
in marketing culture, which lay beneath the surface of both the advertising
agency/marketing department culture, and the media that envelop the rest
of us. For example: "Believing in your product is irrelevant."
(read article...)
Computers and Internet Culture
The Future of Formats
Global Business Network (July 2001)
pdf version
Is the Internet moribund? Hardly. It's just evolving, as mass media have
always done, through the gradual evolution of formats. Formats make media
successful, but they don't operate on the same timetable as technological
innovation. (read article...)
Corporate Culture in Internet Time
strategy + business (1st Quarter 2000)
pdf version
The dirty little secret of high-tech entrepreneurialism is the extent
to which nobody gets any work done. This article, written at the height
of the Internet boom in December 1999, explains why: the gap between the
culture of hype and culture of craft. It still rings true… at least
for those who follow the siren call of fast-paced market share. This was
my first "Culture and Change" column for strategy + business.
(read article...)
Web Intrigue
Tikkun (Vol 15, No.2)
Written in irritation (at Michael Lewis' book The New New Thing) and admiration
(of Charles Ferguson's book High Stakes, No Prisoners), this joint review
focuses on the nature of community in Silicon Valley -- admirable and
irritating indeed.
The Oracle On the Desk
New Age (October 1985)
For about six months, I wrote a technology column for New Age Journal;
one of the entries was this profile of "edge" software, which
purported to make people into more effective manipulators of other human
beings -- though they didn't call it that. (read article...)
The Health Hazards of Computer Terminals
Whole Earth Review, Fall 1985
More than 15 years later, this still stands up -- alas. What can be known,
ornot known, about the long-term effects of low-level radiation? I'm rather
proud of this assemblage of material. (read article...)
The Ambivalent Miseriesof Personal Computing
Whole Earth Review (January 1985)
Part of a special issue of Whole Earth on the perils and unintended consequences
of computers -- an issue chilling in its prescience. I described the psychological
effects of these new machines on me: "I work faster, but my time
feels out of control…. Computers encourage impatience because they
work at a different pace than I do." And so on. (read
.pdf article...)
The History of Magazines on a Timeline
Coevolution Quarterly (fall 1979)
Published in the Fall of 1979, this article began as a prospectus -- "I
am interested in creating a magazine." I was a journalism and graphic
design student then, at the University of California at Berkeley. I never
did create a magazine. I went to work at Whole Earth instead. But
in the process I looked back at the evolution of magazines and realized
that the story of magazine history --the interplay of formats, communities,
ideas, and advertising -- was fascinating in its own right. This article
presciently looked ahead and (sort of) foretold the coming of the Web,
14 years later. In 2001, I developed the ideas further into a current
piece on the next evolution of magazines and related media: The
Next Wave of Format. (read
article...)
Personal Computer Networks with Willy Davis
CoEvolution Quarterly, Fall 1979
In 1978, I was driving around the Bay Area when I heard a guy
named Willy Davis, on the radio, describe a peculiar phenomenon called
a computer network. I was a journalism student (UC Berkeley) looking for
a thesis subject; this computer networking stuff became a preoccupation
for the next 15 years. In this survey article, published in 1979, I examine
all the options available then, including precursors to the WELL and America
Online. And, of course, the Web, which no one foresaw then. (read article...)
Corporate Change
Apocalypse 2010?
strategy+business, Culture & Change, Fourth Quarter, 2002
Populist gadfly Jeff Gates wants today’s CEOs to build a new middle
class with stock ownership plans. Or else. Read
on...
Core Group Therapy
strategy+business, Culture & Change, Fourth Quarter, 2002
You don’t have to be a CEO to create an environment that supports
action. You just need a flair for imaginative networking.
Read on...
What's Going on in Corporations?
Whole Earth Review (Fall 1991 )
Written for an activist/non-corporate audience, this extended survey covers
the wheat (as opposed to the chaff) of corporate change, circa 1991. My
favorite part is an extended review of Dr. Deming's work and the books
about him. (read article...)
Corporate Environmentalism
Time to Dump Plastics Recycling?
Garbage Magazine (Spring 1994)
There COULD have been a terrific infrastructure in place for plastics
recycling. A visionary at Procter & Gamble actually proposed it. But
nobody, including P&G, was willing to do the necessary reaching across
institutional boundaries. That's just one message in this profile, coauthored
with Janis Dutton, of the reasons why the bottles put out at the curb
so often end up in the dump. (read article...)
The Greening of the GNP
Garbage Magazine (Feb/Mar 1993)
You can't manage what you can't measure, or so it's said. This article
looked at the burgeoning field of environmental economics.and the ways
in which "externalities" could be accommodated on the bottom
line. If it happened, it might drastically change behavior, but not enough
people seem to think the way Herman Daly does. (read article...)
Theater of the McServed
Garbage Magazine (Sept/Aug 1991)
McDonalds, in a much-noticed manner, suddenly dropped its "plastic
clamshell" containers and substituted the foil wraps they still use.
The Environmental Defense Foundation facilitated the effort, in an approach
that is still a model for corporate-environmental relationships. Here's
the inside story, including the perspective from jilted spouse Dow Chemical.
(read article...)
What Does It Mean to Be Green?
Harvard Business Review (July-August 1991)
A survey review of the books that explained, circa 1991, the cutting edge
of corporate environmental practice. Regrettably, not enough has changed
since then.
(read pdf
article...)
PR's Changing Face
Garbage Magazine (Nov/Dec 1990)
Having written an article on "the New PR" for Marketing Week,
I thought it would be interesting to explore the public relations side
of corporate environmentalism. (read article...)
Brundtland's Legacy
Garbage Magazine (Sept/Oct 1990)
On assignment for Garbage Magazine, I went to a corporate environmentalism
culture. Why were we holding it at such a swank hotel, with so many energy-wasting
lightbulbs in the ceiling? This provoked a column on the inner contradictions
of corporate environmentalism, and the ways in which Gro Harlem Brundtland
was forcing those issues to the surface. (read
article...)
Corporate Governance
Here is a series of articles from a variety of venues on the nature of corporate governance: The peculiar relationship between shareholders, managers, and customers, that sets the tone for this new form of "artificial life."
The Coevolution of Governance
Whole Earth Review (Spring 1992)
An extended and somewhat naïve piece, trying to make sense of the
contradictory strands of corporate governance and pension-fund capitalism.
Who are corporations really for? It's interesting for the pieces of the
puzzle it lays out. At the time I wrote it, I didn't quite know how to
put them together. (read article...)
Who Owns Exxon? We Do!
Garbage Magazine (May 1991)
David Isenberg singled this article out in his newsletter, isen.com, as
a way to understand corporate purpose. The perennial argument against
corporate responsibility is, "our primary responsibility is to our
shareholders." But as Peter Drucker noticed four decades ago, the
biggest shareholders are now pension funds. Why did Drucker turn out wrong?
Why did pension funds not drive corporate behavior? And why do they keep
trying? (read article...)
Education
Does Six Sigma Belong in Sixth Grade?
strategy+business (2nd Quarter 2000)
pdf version
A dirty word in both education and business circles is "business-education
partnerships." The reason is: Two cultures that don't understand
or respect each other. This column, based in part on my work with the
book Schools That Learn, helps explain why, and why it needs to change.
(read article...)
Ghost Stories
Short pieces written to describe conversations that have been of interest. (read more...)
Learning Histories
Professor Chandler's Revolution
strategy+business (Second Quarter, 2002)
The world's most renowned business historian shares his insights on why
some companies succeed while others fail. He asserts that it is how companies
learn and apply what they learn. Read
article....
Developing Organizational Memory through Learning Histories
Organizational Dynamics (Autumn 1998)
Learning histories came out of an extensive body of theory about organizational
change -- and the ways to assess and describe it without killing the learning
that had taken place. Written with George Roth, here is the soup-to-nuts
methodology of learning histories, and the research rationale underlying
it.
How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher
Coauthored with George Roth
Harvard Business Review (Sept-Oct 1997)
Probably the most cogent overall description of "learning histories,"
the technique for conducting oral histories as a first step toward organizational
awareness. (read
article...)
Management
Build Your Organizational Equity
strategy+business, Culture & Change, Summer, 2003
There’s more to wealth creation than financial value. Think what
rainmaking, reputation, and relationships can do for you and your company.
Read on...
What are the Measures That Matter?
strategy+business (1st Quarter 2002)
A 10 year debate between two feuding gurus, Bob Kaplan and Tom Johnson,
sheds some light on a vexing business question. Read
article...
Climbing to Greatness with Jim Collins
strategy+business (4th Quarter 2001)
Best selling author Jim Collins talks about his new book Good to Great
-- and then we look under the surface of his "Level 5 Leadership"
to see not just a theory of management, but a sense of identity. It goes
back to his test-pilot grandfather and the stoic resolve that might be
needed to operate a business excellently in any era... (read
article...)
Jack Stack’s Story is an Open Book
strategy+business (3rd Quarter 2001)
Probably the most impressive management culture I know of is Springfield
Remanufacturing in Missouri. Best known for "open book management"
and financial literacy -- The Great Game of Business is his term -- the
SRC approach is much more than that. It's a vehicle for genuinely putting
everyone in the organization into the core group, and creating wealth
at a large scale. This profile of Jack Stack explains how. (read
article...)
The Dilemma Doctors
strategy+business (2nd Quarter 2001)
Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner are the subjects of this profile.
They are the partners of a school of cross-cultural consultation that
is very intriguing, as much for the humor and verve of their presentation
as for the underlying thought. (Trompenaars is hilarious on the subject
of Americans, French, Dutch, English, Italians.... and yet somehow not
offensive.) The ultimate message here has to do with managing dilemmas
-- learning to recognize how to have everything you want, but not all
at once, by changing your own attitudes. (read
article...)
Elliott Jaques Levels With You
strategy+business (1st Quarter 2001)
Management knowledge today is where medical knowledge was before the discovery
of the circulation of the blood; we're applying leeches. So says long-standing
irritating business pundit Elliot Jaques, whose own system is tied to
the gradual development of human potential over a lifetime, the cognitive
complexity of decision-making awareness, and the essential nature of hierarchies.
The funny thing is: He may be right. (read
article...)
Media and Advertising
Compact Packaging for the Compact Disk
Garbage Magazine (Nov/Dec 1991)
Remember when compact disks came in big long cardboard boxes composed
of throwaway material? You don't? That's because environmentalists had
a genuine victory. (read article...)
Bare Knuckles on Madison Avenue
The New York Times Magazine (November 1987)
"A lot of the fun has gone out of the business," said Robert
Jacoby disingenuously. Jacoby, the pugnacious CEO of the Ted Bates Advertising
Agency, sold it to Saatchi and Saatchi for an unprecedented amount of
money -- and set in motion an end to the collegial caliber of old-style
advertising. This cover story for the New York Times Magazine chronicled
a great transitional moment, the advertising equivalent to Jack Welch's
becoming CEO -- and then to the aftermath if he had broken up and sold
the company. (read article...)
Organizational Change
Karen Stephenson’s Quantum Theory of Trust
strategy+business, Creative Minds, (Fourth Quarter, 2002)
Companies can analyze, engineer, and elevate their
own human networks, says the pioneering social scientist. Read
article ...
Diary of a Change Agent
strategy+business (Third Quarter, 2002)
Barbara Waugh’s experience provides insight into the real dynamic
that allows corporate revolutionaries, like herself, to succeed in accomplishing
change. Read article...
Professor Chandler's Revolution
strategy+business (Second Quarter, 2002)
The world's most renowned business historian shares his insights on why
some companies succeed while others fail. He asserts that it is how companies
learn and apply what they learn. Read
article....
Strike Up the Brand
strategy+business (2nd Quarter 2001)
Tom Peters wrote an article a few years ago called "The Brand Called
You" in Fast Company, in which he fomented against loyalty
-- and argued that all of us should become free agents. But does this
really work, either as a job strategy or a blueprint for better business
culture? I think not. It works great for the first people to try it, but
after that, it's a ticket to a depressing career, at least for many people.
(read article...)
The Tyranny of "Community"
strategy+business, (4th Quarter 2000)
"I wish we could get people to put as much commitment into this place
as they put into their personal lives." Yeah, right. This column
expresses my own views about why people don't -- and why, in most cases,
they shouldn't. (read article...)
Revisiting Engineering
strategy+business (3rd Quarter 2000)
Why did the three proponents of reengineering -- Michael Hammer, James
Champy, and Thomas Davenport -- all repudiate their early efforts, in
one way or another? The easy answer is: Because reengineering led to brainless
downsizing. But it didn't have to. In this piece, I look for the original
idea underlying reengineering, that real life could be engineered like
quality software -- and the difference that might have made, in the right
hands. (read article...)
Scenario Planning
The Man Who Saw the Future
Strategy+Business, Culture & Change, Spring, 2003
As the pace of change in business accelerates, the legacy of Pierre Wack,
the father of scenario planning, is more relevant than ever. Read
on...
The End of the Official Future
Garbage Magazine (Mar/Apr 1992)
The "official future" is a scenario planning term for the view
of the company's prospects that represents the conventional wisdom. Official
futures often turn out wrong -- as they did for Pacific Gas and Electric.
This piece, 10 years before PG&E went out of business, foreshadowed
some of the forces threatening it, and the scenarios that helped substitute
windmills for nuclear power in California.
Twenty-first Century Organizations:Four Plausible Prospects
Global Business Network (1989-2001)
Adam Kahane facilitated a scenario session for the Society for Organizational
Learning, and I did this write-up. I still use the four scenarios as examples
of the hopes and dreams of many of my peers and colleagues -- and all
four of them, including the daunting "Virus World" and the evocative
"New Renaissance," seem to be coming to pass. (read
article...)
Consequential Heresies
Global Business Network (1989)
Originally commissioned by Harriet Rubin at Doubleday, this oral history
of scenario planning is still regarded as one of the primary documents
in the field, with first-hand reflection by Pierre Wack, Ted Newland,
Napier Collyns, Peter Schwartz, Kees van der Heijden, and others. There
is also an oral history of corporate environmentalism at Dow Chemical.
(read article...)
This is a work in progress, an article on the way that formats for content may evolve on the World Wide Web, and a series of suggestions for how to make the best of them. This was based, in part, on my experiences at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and on work with learning histories. I think there is a great opportunity coming to invent the internet-equivalent to the newspaper format.
Suicide
How Not to Commit Suicide
CoEvolution Quarterly (1981)
This article was originally published in 1981, for CoEvolution Quarterly
-- my first major article, and one that (I think) still rings true two
decades later. Stewart Brand, the editor/founder of CoEvolution Quarterly,
suggested the topic: What actually happens when you try to take your life?
90% of the people who attempt to take their lives fail to do so -- instead,
they remain alive, enduring varying degrees of remorse, injury, and forcible
restraint as a result. Over the years, several people have told me that
this article saved their lives, by giving them a more realistic perspective
of the actual effect of the deed on themselves and on others. This is
probably the most popular article on this site, judging from the number
of hits received, which suggests to me that it may still be useful. (read
article...)