Tag: Tim Kastelle

Bookmarked Taking a Long Term View During Turbulent Times (Tim Kastelle)

Here’s a talk I gave last week on some methods and benefits to thinking in the long term, even when there are urgent short term events taking up our attention.

Tim Kastelle talks about the current challenge for organisations. He said that we are living through the biggest case of confirmation bias, where if the world is going to change then it should obviously change my way. Kastelle explains that thinking is the fast and attention seeking, whereas what we need is thinking that is slow and taps into the power of change. This is captured by Jenny Odell in her book How to Do Nothing. One of the problems is that during a time of chaos, speed is more important than getting it right. However, more importantly, if you are not trying to change all the time, you cannot change on demand. This is why some organisations are are struggling.

The assumption that everything will just be the same as it always has been forever is the worst decision an organisation can make.

This is similar to a point made by Harold Jarche

Bookmarked Technological Revolutions and the Governance Gap (timkastelle.org)

When new technologies or new techniques arrive, there are many different versions around as people try to solve the technical problems involved. This is technology operating at the layer of Fashion.

Once the technology becomes relatively stable, a new business model emerges – this is the conversion of the rapid, almost frantic level of innovation going at the Fashion layer into a more stable version at the Commerce layer.

Tim Kastelle discusses the challenges of governance required to keep up with technological change. This really relates to the work that I do. For me, I find the biggest challenge being the people side of change. Fine workflows could be refined, however Kastelle’s point about governance really captures the greatest challenge.

If we think about these issues as we deploy new technologies, and use them responsibly, it makes it much more likely that our organisation’s business model will synch with the deeper, slower layers that will ultimately determine how these technologies will be used over the long run.

And this is crucial, because, over time, slow has all the power.

Liked How Do We Build 21st Century Business Skills? by Tim Kastelle (timkastelle.org)

So this year we launched a new MBA Industry Project program at UQ.

The way we pitch it to businesses is: do you have a problem that you know is strategically important, but you don’t currently have the bandwidth within your organisation to find the best solution? If so, we will put a team of MBA on that problem for one semester to help you find the best way forward.

(And if so, and if you’re in Australia, and you’re interested, please get in touch!)

The way we pitch it to students is: if you look at that list of 21st Century capabilities, and agree that they are important, this is the best way to build them.

Liked How Do You Invest Your Most Valuable Asset – Your Attention? by Tim Kastelle (The Discipline of Innovation)

We make choices about how we invest attention constantly, and, mostly, unconsciously. There’s value in thinking about this more consciously. And I’m not talking about efficiency. This isn’t about making more efficient use of time. It’s about making our investments more purpose-driven.