Recent Blog Posts
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...
Collaboration: 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...
Facing 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...
Appreciative Inquiry in Action
A few weeks ago I got the chance to see Appreciative Inquiry in action in Atlanta, as I joined the Spelman College faculty for a mini Strategic Doing session. Spelman,...
Car 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...
Unlocking Success: Exploring the Power of Structured Conversations and Decision-Making Methodologies
An exciting part of my work is when we introduce the ten skills of Strategic Doing and help others explore how they may gain more results through a structured conversation....
A 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...
Complexity 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...
Fostering Synergy: Uniting Central and North Wisconsin for Entrepreneurial Growth
“Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in central and north Wisconsin” was the focus of the Strategic Doing Workshop lead by Liz Nilsen and Janyce Fadden from the Agile Strategy Lab. Carie...
Unleashing Change: The Three Levers of Agile Leadership for Achieving Desired Outcomes
Agile leaders have three ways or levers in which they can affect change that allows the entity to achieve desired outcomes. These are – Process, Tools, and People. Process is...
Jumping Curves
In our Strategic Doing trainings and in the book, one of the core concepts is the idea of “jumping curves.” Individual organisms, technologies, and economies all obey the principle of...
Empowering Effective Leadership Through Strategic Doing
Caitlin Burns, the President of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce, attended the Strategic Doing Practitioner Training when she first took on the role as Chamber President. In this new role,...
