All Life Is Problem Solving

Recently, in the actkm group, my friend Stephen Bounds raised the question of the relationship of KM to conflict in the context of a specific situation in which excessive conflict behavior within a project team was threatening successful completion of the project. This led to a pretty vigorous discussion and a great variety of opinions […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) In this series, we developed the ideas of the Problem Solving Pattern (PSP) and Problem Solving Pattern Management. We pointed out how vital performing PSP patterns well is to organizational adaptation, distinguished the problem solving pattern from the Operational Pattern (OP) (Part One), defined four types of problem solving patterns, […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) In our last post, we began a review and commentary on Steven Spear’s post on out learning and out racing the competition. we concluded that post by pointing out that Steve’s conclusion that high velocity organizations institutionalized inductive/deductive problem solving cycles and built new knowledge faster in this way than […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) New solutions to problems are always inventions, however humble. They don’t become innovations however, until they’re communicated to people, and get used in practice. In an Open PSP organization, new ideas are communicated by interpersonal and electronic means in four categories of communication (or integration) activity: broadcasting, search and retrieving, […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) We’ve now arrived at the question of how we can enhance processes of evaluating and selecting new ideas in such a way as to move the organization toward the Open PSP. When I discussed creating new ideas in earlier posts, I pointed to a range of measures as enablers of […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) Here are some examples of criteria that may be used for comparing alternative solutions (i.e. decision models) in a Comparative Decision Making (CDM) context. — Logical consistency (inconsistent decision models are invalid and must be reformulated) — Empirical fit (competing models fit current and past data to varying degrees) — […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) Enhancing the power of an organization’s PSP is a matter of moving it toward the Open PSP from whatever position in phase space it is in. The Vision: Moving Toward the Open PSP Moving an organization’s PSP is driven fundamentally by re-focusing the attention of employees from implementing existing solutions […]

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(Co-Authored with Steven A. Cavaleri) In his new book, Chasing the Rabbit, Steven Spear distinguishes highly adaptive organizations from others, terms them “rabbit organizations,” and, alternatively, “high-velocity organizations,” and develops a framework for identifying them. According to Spear, such organizations have four capabilities: 1) “Specifying Design to Capture Existing Knowledge and Building In Tests to […]

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