You must always bear in mind that seeking the correct solutions means wanting to know the future. This, however, is unknown to us all. The more uncertain the future (because it is different from the past) the more nonsensical it will be to look for the right decisions. Therefore, it seems much more sensible to …
Contact means the mutually related awareness of at least two people. This requires several things: • Firstly, it requires a differentiated self-perception. This includes an unimpeded and spontaneous admittance of the feelings and sensations which are developing. The more inhibited someone’s perception, or the more someone is dependent upon not feeling particular sensations, the less …
There is a lengthy discussion in business administration about what quality consists of and how it can be measured and judged. Is it then, when the buyer/customer is satisfied? But who is that, exactly? The boss? The Inspectorate? The shareholder? The paying customer? The internal customer? Who has relevance? Is there a relevance hierarchy? Who …
Slogans, such as “We have them, the good things!” and “Advances through Technology” create, with regard to the guiding distinction decision orientation, a different orientation than “You are in good hands with us” or “We clear the path”. Sometimes it is simple, because the product, as such, virtually dictates a decision-making premise with regard to …
Structures emerge in systems when the system limits the internal choice (selections) of possible events and their sequences (“Hands are washed before and after eating!”). It is to be completely expected that an organisation (or organisational unit), which has directed its orientation focus on the external environment, will form different structures than one which, in …
Once they have been established, standardisations have a very fundamental function. For the organisation, they represent ‘necessities’, which create freedom from decision-making constraints. This is a rather paradoxical formulation, necessity as the basis of freedom? Actually, though, it is quite simple, because one does not have to make decisions about that which has been determined. …
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has, for a long time, been the label under which organisations bundle the external orientation of decisions. Here, the customer rules: it revolves around individual and long-term relationships, improved service, early perception of customer concerns, the distinction between profitable and less profitable customers, effective and efficient processes, and finally, IT supported …
Strictly speaking, we regard leadership as a social phenomenon and not as the performance of a person. Thus, we distance ourselves, in particular from the image of the ‘great man’, which is wide-spread in the Anglo-American world and revolves around concepts such as leadership, charisma, visionary etc. We clearly distinguish leadership (Luhmann) from authority and …
The conditions, by which a process is observable, we call structure. Structure is not pre-existent nor is it fixed as such (as often thought). Structure is created and maintained, otherwise it fades away or falls apart. Structures organise expectations, i.e. they form the conditions for surprises. From the fact that one is surprised one notices …
When systems develop from within themselves (momentum, autopoiesis), then they live in their ‘own’ time, which has an important characteristic. It is not fixed, but all stability is ‘held’ firm, i.e. it is ‘created’, and does not simply exist: the time in the dentist’s chair clearly passes more slowly than the time in an exciting …