Kinston’s 1988 article is up.

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For Friday, here’s “Seven Distinct Paths of Decision and Action” by Warren Kinston and Jimmy Algie from 1989. This paper describes the seven different approaches to decision-making, but note that it’s really about action.

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Four years ago, I posted about the difference between Closed-Sector and Open-Sector careers. It’s worth looking at again, because your choice of career will affect the choices that you have.
A brief excerpt:

If your first appointment in a Closed-Sector Career matters, it may be used as a proxy for capability. I may assume that you are [...]

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(Or perhaps “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” The make of my bookshelf is 57th Street Bookcase & Cabinet so maybe they don’t care.)
Michelle Malay Carter tagged me recently to participate in the book your reading meme. The assignment, since I decided to [...]

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Klein, Gary. 1997. Making Decisions in Natural Environments. Alexandria, VA: Research and Advanced Concepts Office, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
The article is a great introduction (albeit not his best writing) of Naturalistic Decision Making, and since it was produced for the US Army, it’s free. At least to me. Maybe [...]

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Warren talks a lot about the power of naming, that until you get the all the names right in a particular framework of the Taxonomy, the whole thing seems wrong somehow. He’s not the only one to recognize the power of naming, of course. The Bible’s Adam starts naming things almost immediately, and it’s important [...]

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I’ve been studying Warren Kinston’s Strengthening the Management Culture [I work for one of Warren's companies]. I’d thought I’d blog some thoughts, partly because I feel that the title will turn people off in the New Economy Companies — I’d reckon that Building Your Organizational Culture would do better, although I’m not sure that it [...]

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Besides a new appointment at the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago, I’ve been busy trying to get my mind wrapped around Warren Kinston’s materials. And parent a colicky baby, of course.
Current reading list (for my tracking purposes):

Warren Kinson, 1994. Strengthening the Management Culture (available as a PDF download from the GO Society). The [...]

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I don’t think that Elliott Jaques was right about high moders’ distribution in society. They certainly seem much more prevalent than his published numbers. If I know a handful of mode 7s and 8s, then they can’t be all that rare: I don’t get around that much. I think the issue comes in where they work. High moders are prevalent in IT because the field is so poorly managed. High capacity people can continue to work as technical experts, even though they don’t get paid well. It’s odd how many times I’ve seen a Str4 or 5 person working for a Str2 manager.

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It’s the problem that management wants HR to solve: how do we get these people motivated to do what we want them to do. Even then I knew the answer: the only way to make someone do something that they don’t want to do is to coerce them. You make the reason for them doing it outside them.

There are other ways, of course, but they mean reframing the problem to be sensical to the person. And you have to give them a voice in their own life. Otherwise, you end up with non-motivated workers.

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