Embrace Complexity- Don’t Suppress it
By John Atkinson. If we genuinely believe the world to be a complex place, we need to consciously embrace that complexity, not suppress it. Once we do this, we realise we cannot resolve our activity
Author: Heart of the Art
Heart of the Art was launched by John Atkinson and Emma Loftus in 2014, We've grown into more than we ever could imagine. A place to explore what it means to really make meaningful change, in a world that is messy, complex, and beautifully human.
It’s Time for Quality Leadership in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The way that we have set about delivering this quality has led to an environment where improvements to processes and systems are typically gradual and linear — focusing on reducing waste and variability. Our ability
Linear to Complex
Here are some sound pieces of advice: the more you know about a system, the better you are at predicting its behavior. If you want a large outcome, then put a large amount of effort
Ecological Systems Theory
The Ecological Systems theory states that human development is influenced by the different types of environmental systems. Formulated by famous psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, this theory helps us understand why we may behave differently when we
Playing with time
From John Atkinson. Cause and effect analysis is quite hard. The connection between our actions and their impact can sometimes be quite obscure. Events will be explained away according to the version of history that
Family Systems Theory
A family systems approach argues that in order to understand a family system we must look at the family as a whole. Two families living across the street from each other may each be comprised
Dynamic Systems Theory and Sports Training
Performance and training science has traditionally been deeply influenced by the mechanical conception of human beings. It conceives the organism as a machine divided into parts and performance as the sum of different qualities. But
Cass Sunstein on Nudge Theory
In this excerpt from the event, 'Why Nudge?', renowned public thinker Cass Sunstein defends his groundbreaking nudge theory.
Martial Arts Strategy & The Five Elements
The five element theory is a way of taking a lot of information and organizing it in a way that makes it easy to understand. Used properly it becomes a way to understand complicated relationships
Cognitive Dissonance Theory for Inspiring Social Change
The significance of cognitive dissonance needs to be understood to rationalize the theory underlying social change processes. Social change in the context described might be applied within a personal or family relationship, a work organization,
Twelve Simple Rules of Systems Thinking for Complex Global Issues
We are increasingly aware that many our living systems – human and natural – are at risk today, as we face incredibly complex and interconnected challenges related to global security, environmental degradation, and inter-woven economies.
Hidalgo: Relationships between individual and collective knowledge
In this video Cesar Hidalgo at MIT asks intriguing questions about how social and economic systems interact. He sees networks as holding the knowledge and know-how necessary to ‘crystallise’ information into the things we use
Deming’s 14 points
A reminder of J Edwards Deming’s 14 points, the father of process improvement. Interesting, isn’t it, just how often these aren’t followed?
Why organisations don’t learn
virtually all leaders believe that to stay competitive, their enterprises must learn and improve every day. But even companies revered for their dedication to continuous learning find it difficult to always practice what they preach.
