Posts by Ed Morrison
Breaking the Grip of Silos
In a world in which networks create knowledge and value, leadership involves designing and guiding these networks. In most hierarchical organizations, the task involves breaking the grip of silos by strengthening networks. We’ve learned to distinguish among three types of networks: affinity networks (or interested communities), learning networks (or communities of practice) and innovating networks.…
Read MoreFostering Collaboration on a Local Level
Jacob Moses and I explore how city leaders can grow their economies by fostering collaboration on a local level, including how to find existing assets in your community, how to encourage existing organizations to focus on a shared goal, and how to move forward by relentlessly focusing on “doing the doable”.
Read MorePodcast for Economic and Community Developers
A few weeks ago, I spent some time with Dennis Fraise of Develop This!, a podcast for economic and community developers. In this first podcast, I start by providing some background on the development of the Agile Strategy Lab at Purdue. The Lab is the place at Purdue where people learn the skills to address…
Read MoreThree Hurdles to Digital Transformation
To transform our organizations and economies to higher levels of productivity, prosperity and sustainability, we need to design new systems from the assets of the old. That requires collaboration, a set of skills with which most leaders are unfamiliar. It stands to reason. Today’s leaders came of age within organizations designed for an industrial age.…
Read MoreAgile Strategy and Workforce Development: A Podcast
How do you design and guide complex transformations for workforce development? This podcast explores how workforce development professionals can learn a new set of skills to design and manage complex collaborations.
Read MoreInsights: Why Strategic Doing Beats Strategic Planning
A few weeks ago, I had a great conversation with Aga Bajer, of Culture Lab. In this interview, Aga and I discuss: The value of practice and discipline versus skimming the surface of things The need to slow down before going fast The benefits of creating a safe space for deep, focused conversations How power…
Read MoreLab’s First MOOC: 1,800+ Participants from 124 Countries
In an experiment with FutureLearn, Purdue’s online partner, the Lab has launched a three-week introductory course on agile strategy. The course provides participants with an introduction to the concepts of agile strategy and why new approaches to strategy are needed. Strategy in open, loosely connected networks relies on a different dynamic than traditional strategic planning.…
Read MoreIntroducing Cognitive Diversity to Purdue Students
Purdue students have a difficult time with team assignments. Too often, unproductive members of the team drag down productivity and increase the frustration of other members. Until now, Purdue faculty have not had a systematic approach to providing students with the skills to manage complex collaborations. The AEM-Cube(TM) – developed by our European colleagues at Human…
Read MoreConnecting with North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
We’ve spent time at at North Carolina State with Rich Linton, the dean of their College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. We began to explore how our work in agile strategy and cognitive diversity in teams could assist the College of Agriculture with two important initiatives that they are undertaking. The first involves North Carolina…
Read MoreLouisiana Child and Maternal Health
On July 9, the Lab spent a day in Alexandria, Louisiana tackling the difficult challenges of child and maternal health. This workshop highlights a growing area of interest among public health workers in the agile strategy work we are developing at Purdue. Louisiana’s Bureau of Family Health is housed within the Office of Public Health’s Center…
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