Topic: Scenario Planning

Showing 10 of 121 results (by popularity)

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: A System Primed for Disaster

As I’m sure you’re aware, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit parts of Japan on March 11 of this year. These events caused serious…

Scenarios of the Future: The Urgent Case for Sustainability

I was in grade school when the original Limits to Growth (Universe Books, 1972) was published. The environmental consciousness that blossomed in the early…

Wired for Change: Leveraging Insights from Biology

Either way you spell it, this former CEO’s name is “mud.” Though the pun may be entertaining, the result of failing to explore “unthinkable”…

Planning to Deal with the Unpredictable

It is increasingly accepted that the metaphor of the organization as a complex adaptive system gives a better understanding of management issues than…

Planning for Multiple Futures

Some books have lengthy lives—a measure perhaps of how much they touch their times. Peter Schwartz’s The Art of the Long View: Planning…

A Lifetime of Systems Thinking

When one reaches 80, one is considered to be ripe and ready for picking. Picking usually consists of the pickers asking the pickee to…

Predicting Behavior Using Systems Archetypes

The adage “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” captures an old belief that something “known” is more valuable than…

From Riots to Resolution: Engaging Conflict for Reconciliation

As members of communities and organizations, many people feel their days (and their energy!) being consumed by contentious conflicts between diverse stakeholder groups. Organizations…

Future Thinking by Middle Managers: A Neglected Necessity

This is a story about what happened to a group of technical managers working in a multinational corporation, the Big Can Corporation (BCC)*, when…

The Potential of Talking and the Challenge of Listening

In December 2002, the entire world was arguing about what to do about Iraq. There were two sides to the argument. On one side,…