The Framework of theories, expectations, past experiences and language as boundaries

Image: Cultbreak.com

Thought for the Day:

Came across this quote by Karl Popper which made me think about the need to consider our ideas, theories, expectations, past experiences, beliefs, and language as boundaries and, in a systems thinking sense, the relationship between "breaking out of our frameworks" to "find ourselves again in a framework":

"I do admit that at any moment we are prisoners caught in the framework of our theories; our expectations; our past experiences; our language. But we are prisoners in a Pickwickian sense; if we try we can break out of our frameworks at any time. Admittedly, we shall find ourselves again in a framework, but it will be a better and roomier one; and we can at any moment break out of it again." 

(Popper, 1970, p. 86)

The most important point I believe to take away here is that "we can at any moment break out of it again" - it being the Frameworks  and Boundaries that we have created in our minds.

References:

Popper, K. 1970.  Normal Science and its dangers.  In Imre Lakatos & Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.

"We spend our time responding rationally to a world which we understand and recognize, but which no longer exists.” (Eddie Obeng)

In this energetic TEDTalk, Professor Eddie Obeng, provides useful insights into the world that we live in today and the challenges with which we are confronted.

 Often we have "learnt" solutions and believe them to be "true" without questioning them. We then employ the same "solution" when we see a similar (but not the same) problem even though it may be in the incorrect answer.

 Eddie illustrates how the internet and globalization has seen the increase in the density of information and interaction and that old concepts of size and scale in this global environment are no longer the same. All possibilities are possible - there are no correct answers and therefore, when planning, we need to 'future think' in a holistic way - how are our solutions we are providing today for yesterday's problems going to affect us in the future and how are we going to plan for that? He encourages to think about how we employ and deal with "smart failure" - when projects or risks "fail".

A good watch with some pertinent points for leadership in the 21st century.

Leadership and Management in a Networked World

What would you do if you woke up one morning and saw the sign "Sorry NO INTERNET Today".

The 21st Century has seen the development of our industrialised society to an information society and now, a networked society due the internet and personal devices we carry around with us, and social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

This network society presents immense opportunities  for society, organisations and individuals and, at the same time, issues of security, risk, privacy and intellectual property are heightened.

The networked society is enabling organisations to be become more agile and responsive to customer needs.  There has been notable changes in attitudes amongst the Generations, enough for them to be labelled Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y... I understand that Generation C is on its way.

We are also told that we are living in an algorithmic world - that everything we do can be observed and measured online then, using algorithms, pictures and information are created by algorithms to help us make decisions - but these algorithms are not always under our control as Kevin Slavin argues in his presentation at TEDGlobal.    He explains that "we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms and he warns that we are writing code we can't understand, with implications we can't control."

So - enough of the scaremongering.    This blog is aimed to follow me through my journey as I fulfil my PhD at the University of Hull.   To date - it has already leapt me forward into realizing that the future leaders and managers of tomorrow will need to understand, accept and celebrate complexity and uncertainty in order to be able to cope with the pressures that complexity and uncertainty place on ourselves as individuals, groups and as a society.  I hope to devise a very simple method to enable and empower leaders and managers at all levels ... simplicity is meant to be the opposite of complexity (as quoted by Eric Barlow). 

I hope that you will enjoy and share this journey with me.