Use ‘thought experiments’ to reduce emergent risk

Observe-Interpret-Design-Experiment

Imagine that you are considering an initiative of some sort.  It could be that you are a manager and you need to respond to signs of growing tension between two of your staff.  Or perhaps you need to develop an approach to social media for your o … [Continue reading]

Start-up stories of HP, Sony and Microsoft – Adaptive Iteration

Adaptive Iteration can be seen in the start-up stories of Hewlett Packard, Sony and Microsoft.  All three started with a high level purpose to start a business, but without specific constraints about the products and markets they would serve.  In e … [Continue reading]

What do we mean by Adaptive Iteration?

Prepared Mind quote

At Discerning Action we believe that Adaptive Iteration is a valuable approach to working with unpredictability and uncertainty in organisations.  What do we mean by Adaptive Iteration?  What are the core elements and how do they fit together? For … [Continue reading]

Why develop agility and adaptive capacity?

AI Cycle - OIDE(P)

Many of the issues and trends facing organisations today are complex and, to a large degree, unpredictable in terms of their specific impact and timing.  They include climate change, globalisation, social media, big data, internet of things, rise of … [Continue reading]