In late 2005 I had the opportunity to participate in Kevin Kelly’s online course at San Francisco State University. As part of the course, Kevin had the class ask me questions on the topic of needs assessment, I so thoroughly enjoyed the resulting discussion that I’d like to share sections with others.

Based on feedback from the initial newsletter, I am presenting more of the online course discussion. This month’s focus is on group decision-making. As a reminder, in late 2005 I had the opportunity to participate in Kevin Kelly’s online course at San Francisco State University. I so thoroughly enjoyed the resulting discussion that I’d like to share sections with others.

Far too many organizations are stuck in out-dated ways of making decisions and collaborating. Frequently I find the organizations are facing complexity, - new technology demands, new organizational demands, new user demands - yet they are not equipped to understand or handle this complexity effectively. This month’s focus is on the concept of “complex systems” and how systems theory has some specific principles that help us understand and handle complexity.

Quite often managers make poor decisions in an organization because they have an simplistic mental model of the organization and how it should behave. The most over-used model is the org chart. We need to go beyond the org chart if we want to be effective leaders.

By looking at some of NASA’s manned space flight history, we can see two of the easiest mistakes that managers make when self-preservation of a favorite project becomes their modus operandi. These mistakes are becoming blind to reality and forgetting how to listen to those closest to the action. These two mistakes can kill any mission-critical system implementation.