Risk assessments, i.e. the question whether a particular decision, and the resulting behaviour, will be worth it in the future or whether it is regretted, are always bound to the perspective of those who make this assessment. Often, this is misrepresented: “Is nuclear energy dangerous?”. Here we must ask, for whom, for the person now …
The more decision-making possibilities a system has, or assumes, in order to influence the future or to react to future events differently, the more occupied it is in calculating its risks. Therefore, particularly for (economic) organisations, who strive for future success and are dependent upon it, it becomes unavoidable to occupy themselves with which risks …
From a meta-theoretical view of change, changeability is a central moment of organisational dynamics. Why? If you depend on truth (factual dimension), then, from the beginning, you are dependent upon the great, correct plan, with which you must then also persevere. If you depend on consensus (social dimension), you must ensure from the beginning that …
Blind trust is not trust. Trust requires selective tests, if it is not to wither into naiveté or hope. Therefore, in organisations, as in teams, relationships are repeatedly tested to see if trust is appropriate. The main test for trust consists in surreptitiously creating opportunities for the abuse of trust to occur. If you create …
That trust is dangerous is already known in folklore. But why and for what reason exactly? And what are the specifics in organisations? When organisations place trust in systems (i.e. parts of themselves), or in individuals, they take the inevitable risk that the success of those activities, which were put in the care of the …
Risk without danger does not exist. Whoever decides, always risks that the discarded (or unknown) alternative would have been more favourable (“If we had not …!”). The more decision-making possibilities there are, the more risks created. At the same time, the risks also increase, because, with greater complexity, maintaining an overview of the consequences, which …
Meta-theoretically what is noticeable when dealing with strategy, risk research, education, psychology, medicine, organisational theory and so on, is how many concepts deal with achieving security (and therefore its value), without occupying themselves, to the same degree, with the risks involved in their security. Vaccinations and preventative screening for problems, loss of capital because of …
Organisations with a traditional layout don’t like surprises. Organisations constructed in the usual business management way would like it best if everything ran as planned and expected. However, often the future is more different to the present than one thinks. “Managing the Unexpected” (Karl E. Weick) becomes a further additional discipline, which organisations and their …
Planning is one of the chief activities in organisations. It is normal and ever present. It usually occupies itself with the present future, i.e. with the attempt to shape the future as one would like it (today). The future present, i.e. that, which really happens tomorrow and the day after, appears in planning as a …
The term, situation potential, was formulated and made productive for management purposes by the French philosopher and China expert F. Julien in the context of ‘effectiveness theory’. He identifies a common method in China when dealing with change and the future, which does not focus action onto creating a desired future. Rather, the present situation …