Episode 36: Part 3 of the 12 point philosophy: “The main task of an organisation”

This episode is part of a 12 part series on the Pactify philosophy, today POINT 3 1. Start from a question/ problem, not from an answer or half answer. 2. Most problems are unique, requiring new knowledge, they cannot be optimally solved with old knowledge 3. The main task for an organisation is to continuously grow it’s problem solving capacity (being able to solve more problems, more optimally, with more real cooperation) Organisations are problem solving systems Problems are inevitable, they come at you in continuous flows The problem solving capacity of an organisations is defined as: (i) The kind of problems it can solve (ii) The quality of problems it can solve and (iii)The amount of cooperation in doing so Organisations need to continuously improve on all 3 aspects simultaneously There is no holistics remedy for this: No overall slogan or remedy It is also not reductionist: you cannot tweak simple buttons for this and hope that the overall problem solving capacity grows It’s emergent: it grows “in the action”/ it emerges from the action; at avery step of knowledge creation, progress and cooperation So there is also a limit to the predictability of this, let alone the controlleability of this … however of you get certain things right inside of the emergent process, there is a ways of guiding the problem solving capacity towards continuous growth 4. The best solutions “emerge” in a process, they cannot be known/ controlled in advance, they are the ones that eventually resist criticism better than their alternatives 5. Knowledge cannot be poured into people, they need to work themselves on understanding it, through own ideas and criticism (and you “staying in the question”) 6.A good solution to a business problem needs to be a hard to vary explanation 7. The solution (explanation) you build is never infallible, can not be justified but only (continuously) error-corrected 8. Engagement is primarily driven by being able to solve relevant problems, with enough of your own input in the solution 9. Solving a relevant problem together ties people more closely together than their shared place in the organization or shared opinions 10. Real cooperation is when everyone (i) contributes beyond their role to a shared explanation for why& how to solve a problem and (ii) finds maximum alignment in the how and why of the explanation 11. Good solutions (evolved ideas), developed in cooperation, extend across& over roles/ functions/ layers. They cannot be clearly separated and reduced to the sum of distinctly separate inputs 12. Good knowledge/ engagement/ cooperation … all develop in a specific process of “learning in the action”. The process has 5 key drivers for the learning: real communication, transparency, autonomy, flow and group flow For feedback/ comments/ criticism: reach out to me at [email protected] As always, thanks 4 listening !