Posts by Ed Morrison
What’s Your Lego?
Modularity enables small things to grow into large things. Solar cells become solar arrays that become solar power stations. Modularity also makes sense to understand living systems. It’s a central…
Read MoreCollaboration: An Infinite Game
A deep transformation is taking place across every organization, every region, every economy. It’s a shift from closed, linear hierarchical thinking to more open, adaptive network thinking. But there’s a…
Read MoreFacing a Wicked Problem? Impose Constraints
Yesterday, I spent part of the day coaching an ecosystem builder in Greenville on designing a very early-stage approach — Phase 0 — to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. There’s…
Read MoreCar Talk: A Master Class In Either/Or Thinking
Years ago, when I was living in Cambridge, MA, I was a big fan of Ray and Tom Magliozzi, two MIT graduates who operated a car repair shop near where I lived. They launched a local radio show called Car Talk, and their show became a national hit.
Read MoreA Brief Overview of Strategic Doing
Strategic Doing – a peer-reviewed, scientifically grounded practice — teaches the discipline of collaboration and strategy in open networks. The practice works well to develop collaborations across siloed organizations, multi-disciplinary…
Read MoreComplexity Thinking. What is it?
There are many ideas and no clear consensus. Here’s how I have used the framework as a practitioner for over 30 years. I’ll start with why complexity thinking matters. Humankind…
Read MoreMoving from “Command and Control” to “Design and Do”
One mistake that we humans make is that we think we have time. Well, we don’t. Not really. For example, we’ve known for at least 30 years that our organizations – built with an industrial age logic, grounded in linear thinking – do not learn and adapt quickly in complex, dynamic environments.
Read MoreForming New Ecosystems
Over the past months, I’ve been coaching #strategicdoing practitioners as they design and guide the formation of new ecosystems. These ecosystems generate solutions to wicked problems. They help us close our ingenuity gap…the chasm between the problems we face and the solutions we create.
Read MoreGUIDING COMPLEX CHANGE WITH PERFORMANCE
My colleague Scott Hutcheson reminds me of our work at Purdue University. In 2005, Scott invited me to come to Purdue to work on a $15 million grant he had landed. We deployed #strategicdoing,…
Read MoreDigital Transformation
Digital transformation changes the flow of information and knowledge across an organization. Digital technologies alter the dynamics of power—the nature of leadership shifts.
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