“Explicit knowledge, conventionally delivered like pizza (neat boxes with toppings of concepts, theories, best practices and war stories), is consumed by the brain but not metabolized into action. The learning we call intuition, know-how and common sense gets into the blood stream through osmosis. It is shaped by social context.” KnowsWarStoriesActionSocialCommonBrainKnowledgePracticeKnow HowLearningBloodTheoryConceptsManagementBoxesIntuitionCommon SenseStreamsConsumedPizzaNeatExplicitToppingsWar StoriesBest PracticesOsmosis Book:The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems Source: The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems
“The genuflection toward 'fairness' is a familiar newsroom piety, in practice the excuse for a good deal of autopilot reporting and lazy thinking but in theory a benign ideal. In Washington, however, a community in which the management of news has become the single overriding preoccupation of the core industry, what 'fairness' has often come to mean is a scrupulous passivity, an agreement to cover the story not as it is occurring but as it is presented, which is to say as it is manufactured.” ThinkingMeanStoriesCommunityDealsPracticeTheoryIndustryNewsIdealsManagementExcuseCoreFamiliarLazyAgreementFairnessPietyPreoccupationBenignPassivityAutopilotLazy Thinking Author:Joan Didion
“A rational prediction has an explanation based on theory.” TheoryManagementRationalExplanationPredictions Author:W. Edwards Deming
“We should be guided by theory, not by numbers.” ShouldNumbersTheoryManagement Author:W. Edwards Deming
“We want best efforts guided by theory.” WantEffortTheoryManagementBest Effort Author:W. Edwards Deming
“The first step toward the management of disease was replacement of demon theories and humours theories by the germ theory. That very step, the beginning of hope, in itself dashed all hopes of magical solutions. It told workers that progress would be made stepwise, at great effort, and that a persistent, unremitting care would have to be paid to a discipline of cleanliness. So it is with software engineering today.” FirstsMadeWould BeCareTodayEffortStepsProgressHumourTheoryDisciplineDiseaseSolutionsPaidManagementWorkersDemonSoftwareEngineeringFirst StepsPersistentCleanlinessGermsReplacementsSoftware EngineeringGreat Effort Author:Fred Brooks
“In the study of management, unfortunately, many writers have been so anxious to articulate a theory in the form of, "If you do this, this will result," that they never go through this careful effort.” IfsHas BeensFormResultsEffortStudyTheoryManagementCarefulAnxious Author:Clayton Christensen
“Often they [writers on the study of management] have a point of view based upon intuition and experience. They then offer a cadence of two-paragraph examples carefully selected to "prove" their theory, and then they write "one size fits all" books. The message is, "If you'd do what these companies did, you'd be successful too."” IfsWritingTwoBookViewsCompanyStudySuccessfulExampleTheoryFitOffersProveMessagesManagementSizeIntuitionPoint Of ViewBeing SuccessfulParagraphSelectedCadenceOne Size Fits All Author:Clayton Christensen
“I've concluded that getting the categories right is an absolutely crucial step to building useful management theory, and unfortunately too few writers do this. You've got to engage in serious scholarship, and then figure out how to write it in a way that lots of people can understand.” PeopleWayWritingStepsFiguresBuildingSeriousTheoryManagementCategoriesCrucialScholarship Author:Clayton Christensen
“If you want to make better theory, you've got to use the best that's available and look through the lens of another discipline to see if you can uncover more anomalies. By looking at the phenomena of failure from the perspective of sales, marketing, finance, general management, and the equity markets, I was able to see things that Rebecca [Henderson] hadn't.” IfsWantLooksUseAbleTheoryPerspectiveDisciplineManagementMarketingAvailableFinanceLensesEquityAnomaliesRebecca Author:Clayton Christensen
“There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are responsive to the shareholders, but I why not to the so - called stakeholders, the work force and the community? Nothing in economic theory opposes that. Those are social and political decisions.” ShouldPoliticalForceSocialCommunityDecisionEconomicTheoryManagementCorporationsWhy NotShareholdersEconomic TheoryStakeholderPolitical Decisions Author:Noam Chomsky
“I have always admired the Linking Pin theory of management specialist Rensis Likert. It says that in every organization there are leaders who link the lower level to the upper level. What makes somebody an effective link as a leader is that he conveys down everything that above wants and he conveys up everything that below needs.” WantNeedsLevelsLeaderTheoryOrganizationManagementLinksPinsSpecialists Author:Colin Powell
“I think you can improve on that natural ability with training and exposure to great leaders of the past and to management theories.” ThinkingPastNaturalAbilityLeaderTheoryTrainingManagementExposureGreat LeaderNatural Ability Author:Colin Powell
“Of course the lower classes have always felt downtrodden and aspired to a better life. But there is this theory that people respond to a class structure in England - there was a time when people knew who they were and knew whom they served and as long as management wasn't abusive, it was a good life for people.” PeopleLongCoursesFeltClassTheoryEnglandManagementStructureGood LifeBetter LifeAbusiveLower ClassDowntrodden Author:Damian Lewis