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The Next Common Sense: Mastering Corporate Complexity Through Coherence

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"The old common sense was about dealing with the discrete elements of a 'complicated' world. The next common sense is about mastering the 'complex' swirl of events and situations around us through coherence. The old world was a complicated agglomeration of many discrete items. The new world is a complex one of interdependencies and interrelationships...Our purpose in writing this book is to help you to be like Alexander the Great. When confronted with the legendary knot of tangle rope tied by King Gordius, Alexander knew what to do. Faced with the traditional challenge, he accepted without hesitation: the complexity of the knot did not phase him. He drew his sword and cut the Gordian knot with a single, dramatic stroke, thereby ensuring that he would rule all of Asia. Many before Alexander had tried and failed, thinking that the knot was complicated and needed to be untied. Only Alexander saw that a simple action would move through the complexity to a higher plane. Untying your own Gordian knots requires nothing more than common sense - the next common sense...In this book we present 10 scenic vistas on the corporate landscape. All have elements that derive from complexity science but, more importantly, all relate to management. From each vista, you the reader are encouraged to extract simple guiding principles that make sense to you. Creating your own coherent point of view will be the takeaway from reading this book. We hope you enjoy the view!" (pp.1-16).

In this context, throuhout the book Michael Lissack and Johan Roos discuss these 10 scenic vistas as follows:

1- Use simple guiding principles. They write, "where the old common sense was about dealing with local situations and trying to 'sort things out,' the next common sense is about adopting a global viewpoint, allowing interactions to happen, which in turn will drive coherent actions", and list traditional six bad rules that lead to failure:

(1). Treat business as if it were a war fought on a battlefield.

(2). View the corporation as a machine.

(3). Practice management as control.

(4). Treat your employee as children.

(5). To motivate, use fear.

(6). Remember, change is nothing but pain.(more detailed discussion see Chapter 2).

2- Respect mental models, yours and others'. They write, "the next common sense is about creating an organizational context for coherent actions. To create such a context yuo must help the necessary others, i.e. everyone you interact with, in the process of finding meaning and of creating a coherent point of view. Another label for this process is making sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 3).

3- Use landscape metaphors to describe both the environment and processes taking place within it. They write, "landscape images align with today's world - just look at the ascendancy of the landscape motif in numerous book titles, articles, conferences, and media events. Landscapes are part of the next common sense because they provide context we all can relate to. They work much more easily than jargon, and are better descriptors than the game and race metaphors of the old common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 4).

4- Combine and recombine and avoid trying to impress yourself or others with holism. They write, "the beauty of pieces, of building blocks, is that they can be combined and recombined to create new things, new ideas, and new ways of relating and interacting. In a world where wholes are not simply the sum of their parts, it is critical to train ourselves to think about deconstructing and recombining. The philosophers may call this postmodernism-we call it the next common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 5).

5- Recognize your multiple roles, don't hide from them. They write, "we question whether it was ever common sense to insist that the company always comes first, but clearly that has been a norm in big corporations for years. In the next common sense it is critical to allow people to be themselves. Only by acknowledging the many sides of each person can a company hope to obtain maximum benefits from that person over the long run. Most firms recognize this for their CEO - it is time they reconized it for the troops in the trenches" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 6).

6- Create canyons, not canals. They write, "canyons are not about the command-and-control culture of the old common sense - they are about the guiding values of the next common sense. Canyons are an analogy for the guiding viewpoints that managers of interactions need to be effective. Canals are the comparable analogy for the manager of entities who issued commands in an effort to manage outcomes" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 7).

7- Tell stories to allow others the benefit of shared experiences. They write, "stories are about context. The old common sense may have encouraged the use of bullets as a means of avoiding context. The next common sense is about telling stories that are open enough to allow listeners to draw relevant conclusions and authentic enough to convey their context in metaphors" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 8).

8- Send out scouting parties to probe the environment. They write, "the old common sense, which may have justified a closed mind, not-invented-here syndrome, just just does not work in a world of interactions. The next common sense asks what we can learn from the environment. Preparation is the key to attaining advantage" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 9).

9- Post and attend to road signs. They write, "using the next common sense is a matter of recognizing individual contributions and allowing others to leverage them, while combating the tendency of individuals to stake out territory and post 'no trespassing' signs. In a world of interactions, knowledge of opportunities is key to realizing them, and awareness of fences is an awareness of opportunities missed" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 10).

10- Fuel coherence with aligned words. They write, "it was never true that words had only one meaning, but many managers operating from the old common sense sure acted as if they did - the boss's meaning. Reflection on the next common sense reveals an essential truth: the words we use can help to enact the context for our actions. Words that are aligned with values and purpose can assist intended acts; words that are not aligned can act instead to obstruct. Word choice matters" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 11).

On the other hand, Chapter 12 is about creating coherence.As they write, "Chapters 2-11 have given you building blocks for both making sense of things and developing a coherent point of view. Now these building blocks need to be used to construct an action plan. This chapter is about using what you have learned. Five steps are key to realizing the next common sense in any organization".And they describe these steps as follows:

(1). Identify yourself and your goals.

(2). Use the right language.

(3). Create the right context.

(4). Turn people loose and then get out of the way.

(5). Use communication that works.

As argued by them, these five steps are not guarantee of success, but a tool for attaining the skill of a master.

Strongly recommended.

Because of my deep personal interest in using visual thinking tools for opportunity discovery and strategic exploration, I find this book very useful and practical. I particularly like the authors' use of powerful visual metaphors to understand & to master the complexity all around us, and to chart out new strategic directions, whether in business or in life. If you are planning what you want to do with the rest of your life in our constantly changing & uncertain world - or planning the next strategic moves for your company- read this book and use the ideas. The authors' website is also worth exploring.

Twenty years ago the corporation was about command and control, clear lines of reporting and firmly defined functions. All the elements were discrete. Nonetheless it was a "complicated" affair. Authors Michael Lissack and Johan Roos contrast that relatively simple state with the contemporary world where companies are faced with endless multifaceted relationships, strategic alliances, cross functional initiatives and customer networks. These interrelationships and interdependencies mean that the new business landscape is not merely complicated, it is "complex", an intricate interweaving of people, organisations, systems and technologies. This complexity needs a new paradigm to understand and deal with it. And that tool, as the title implies, is "a new commons sense". "The old common sense was an understanding of cause and effect in the complicated world of discrete events. The next common sense is a description of cause and effect in a world of interweavings," they write.

This book aims to provide middle and senior mangers with a tool with which to cut through the Gordian knot of modern business complexity. And in theory at least Lissack and Roos succeed. Coherence, they say, is the key. They describe it as a "unified perspective" or the glue that holds the company together. The authors offer a five-point plan for achieving coherence and list 10 simple principles for management interested in applying the new common sense. And they are indeed very common sensical. The first is "Use simple guiding principles", another "Tell stories", a third "Send out scouting parties".

Lissack is an expert in complexity management who teaches business ethics at the Amsterdam School of Management while Roos is Professor of Strategy and General Management at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. They are a pair of very heavy hitters indeed and this well-written and carefully constructed book reflects their depth of knowledge and intellectual rigour. It's a challenging and rewarding read for any one seriously interested in dealing effectively in a rapidly changing world.

Anything written by either of the two authors must be taken very seriously, and this book does not disappoint. Johan Roos is an impressive speaker and author and Mike Lissack is that rarity, a genuinely original thinker. This book is a quiet and thoughtful guide to new ideas, or "The Next Common Sense". It could also have been called the Tao of Complexity.

Whilst the book is informed by ideas associated with "complexity", the authors never fall into jargon, and the reader is introduced to a number of concepts without having the underlying theory or origin of the ideas actually forced on them. It would appear that the purpose of the book is to bring a new set of concepts more fully into the public domain and in this they succeed.

I would also like to read another book, which I hope they write, which explores the environment into which our society is now traveling, a world in which we feel like Alice in Wonderland, and for which we need the best guidebooks available.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES, the US regional carrier run by Herb Kelleher, has in recent years become a darling of management writers. It has been praised for its enlightened attitudes towards its staff and, most famously, for thinking "outside the box" - it measures turn-around times against Formula One pit-stop crews, not other airlines.

Now, we are told, it is practising "the next common sense". According to Michael Lissack , an investment banker-turned-strategic adviser, and Johan Roos, professor of strategy and general management at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, this involves stepping back from the details to gain a vantage point on what is really happening.

Their starting point is Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot. "Many before Alexander had tried and failed, thinking that the knot was complicated and needed to be untied," they write. Only Alexander saw that a simple action, cutting through the knot with a single stroke of his sword, would move through the complexity to a higher plane, namely ruling Asia. The authors claim that we all face our own Gordian knots, and untying them simply requires "common sense".

The only problem is that the old common sense will not do. That, they say, was about how to deal with the separate and free-standing units of a complicated world. Now, that complication has been replaced by complexity, where various relationships, alliances and networks create a swirl of interweaving events and situations. The new common sense is about creating coherence.

Which is where Southwest Airlines comes in. According to Lissack and Roos, the company embodies coherence by having each employee "think and act like an owner". They point out how Southwest's elimination of inflexible work rules and rigid job descriptions allows its people to assume ownership for getting the job done, regardless of whose official responsibility it is.

Accordingly, the authors report: "When a flight is running late because of bad weather, it's not uncommon to see pilots helping customers in wheelchairs board the plane, helping the operations agents take boarding passes or the flight attendants clean up the cabin between flights."

But how do other organisations emulate such attitudes? Lissack and Roos offer "10 guiding principles to provide you with the sense of coherence you need, as well as five practical steps for putting the principles into action".

Some of the principles appear a little vague. But many of the others provide powerful insights. This is particularly so of the first - use simple guiding principles, on the basis that "life is complex enough without adding complication to it". Moreover, Lissack and Roos go completely against management consultants' practice by saying that executives should use "landscape metaphors" to describe the business environment and the processes taking place. The five steps are commendably straightforward,if a little repetitive - identify yourself and your goals, use the right language, create the right context, turn people loose and then get out of the way, using ommunication that works.

So who measures up to this new reality? Hi-tech companies, such as Intel and America On Line, are prominent. But the authors also point to Virgin, and the credit card agency Visa International. Virgin is well known for its ability to develop operations in everything from transatlantic air transport to cola. Less familiar is how Visa raised itself from the mess that was the infant credit card business through, say Lissack and Roos, developing "coherence in action and viewpoint".

Will other financial services organisations follow suit?

Mind expanding. Beautifully written. Finally, a book that sees to the core of complex adaptive systems, revealing new ways to "see" the world and to lead. -- John Seely Brown

Barnum would have loved this book as he relished the idea that a sucker is born every minute. I wasted both time and money on this book. If you want a far more credible model of management, get the book Beyond the Hype. For serious stories of leadership read and learn from The Working Leader. For serious exposition of complexity theory and business, buy Ralph Stacey's books.

This book reveals how to make sense of today's economic environment and organization, providing a set of ten principles or perspectives for understanding and leading organization. These principles reflect a new way of thinking and acting-a new common sense-in contrast to the old. For instance, leading entities (old) vs. guiding interactions; using mechanistic metaphors (old) vs. thinking about ecosystems; and insisting the company come first (old) vs. allowing people to be themselves. A chapter is devoted to discussing each principle. An interesting exploration into ways of thinking and dealing effectively with organizational and leadership issues. It makes for some clarity in today's fast and furiously foward rushing reality. Recommended. Reviewed by Gerry Stern and Yvette Borcia, founders, Stern & Associates and HR Knowledge Network, authors of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits.

Had enough of mangerial fads? Enough of one minute throw away lines? Ready to do some thinking? If so, then this book is for you.

Lissack and Roos turn management into common sense ... a new common sense based on how ideas, people, and things interact. If the old line of "follow the money" were updated, its replacement would be "understand the interactions." This book will show you how.

Wish I could have read this years ago. A must read for every manager.

Extraordinary. Thought provoking. Has made me re-examine the way I view business, managing, and the world. Where was this book when I needed it ten years ago?