ADLER typewriter Model n°7 (Frankfurt / Germany). Unknown model date (probably ~1930/40). By Dake

Extending Levels of Work With New Management Applications

Forrest Christianrequisite organization, Warren Kinston 6 Comments

After Glenn Mehltretter’s comments about Kinston and Rowbottom’s article from 1990, I went and got copies, OCRed them, and got Warren’s permission to post them here. This is the first, from 1989. They are useful articles and should be in someone’s database but this journal has never been electronically archived anywhere that I could find. Warren has developed these articles …

ADLER typewriter Model n°7 (Frankfurt / Germany). Unknown model date (probably ~1930/40). By Dake

Pragmatist Meets Structuralist: A Web Example

Forrest ChristianTheory, Warren Kinston 2 Comments

Here’s a good example of what someone who is a structuralist sounds like when talking to a pragmatist, for those who’ve been following my discussions of Warren Kinston’s and Jimmy Algie’s Seven Languages of Achievement (aka the Seven Decision Languages). The manager, like most managers, is a pragmatist working in a pragmatist company. “Get ‘er done” is the motto. The …

Notice: New Boss, Same As The Old Boss…

Forrest ChristianAdmin, Warren Kinston Leave a Comment

Warren Kinston needed to take the company in a direction that, at least for the next year or so, would preclude the work I had joined with him to do. We have therefore parted ways, and I wish him the best in getting his taxonomy into online products. Any questions about the future of the taxonomy should be directed to …

Contemplative Work

Forrest ChristianTheory, Warren Kinston Leave a Comment

From Kinston, Warren. 1988. “A total framework for inquiry”. Systems Research, 5(1): 9-25. The inherent dangers in the Level VII' [the contemplative] inquiry include fixation on an incorrect idea and inappropriate messianism. Speculative ideas are not practically usable until they have been socially shared with the relevant community…. Scientific process occurs at this level through holistic syntheses which reframe or …

Manhattan Bridge under construction-1909

Instilling Values in an Organization Takes Time, So Be Patient

Forrest ChristianChange, Warren Kinston 2 Comments

vOne of the things that always seesms to surprise people who do organizational change projects (and pretty much all IT projects are organizational change projects) is that it takes longer to change things than you thought it would. While you are waiting for things to settle down, you can’t walk away or everything that you brought to them walks out …