March 29, 2011 The Sendai (or Tohoku) earthquake has been called a “Black Swan,” a totally unforeseeable event. Can organizations prepare for black swans, or that idea totally illogical hokum? An example of a pure black swan event was discovery of archaea, the third form of life other than flora and fauna. Before seeing it, […]
March 29, 2011 Systemic bias is an inseparable part of organizational culture, the common pattern of thinking that goes with it, and the premises by which all human systems function. Therefore each of us has a systemic bias. However, we may be unaware of its unstated assumptions. Without sensing these and learning to question them, […]
March 9, 2011 My own path toward Compression Thinking began almost 50 years ago, asking dumb questions in Economics 101. Economists seemed to build complex models on overly simplistic assumptions, for instance that all of us are motivated by self-interest – but I knew plenty of people that weren’t. Economists assumed perfect competition. However, most […]
March 11, 2011 In February, the UN’s Global FAO Food Price Index pushed further above its former peak in July 2008, the same month that oil prices peaked above $140 a barrel. The 2008 peak subsided quickly because it was partly speculative trading, but not before food riots broke out in various places; Egypt for […]
