**May 8, 2024** #### Links [Transistor](https://share.transistor.fm/s/77a761b2) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/3DBRCVFep0YbYeLPcVVXQv) [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/essential-dynamics-with-derek-hudson/id1542392917) [Podcast Addict](https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/essential-dynamics-with-derek-hudson/3153944) #### Summary Angela Montgomery shares some thoughts with Derek on the origins of her upcoming book The Human Constraint. "We cannot continue to live in a world where we are continuously undermined by the inability to think systemically." #### Concepts - [[The System]] - [[Silos]] - [[Constraints]] #### Quotes >Our whole point is that we don't need to have artificial barriers inside organizations. We are still trapped into thinking that there are separations that need to be there when they really don't. >What we spend all our energy on is getting the information out there to people that there is a better way. We cannot continue to live in a world where we are continuously undermined by the inability to think systemically. >It's all based on the the fallacy of the idea that if we split things up into pieces we can control them better. That is the completely flawed thinking behind the way majority of companies are still organized today. >Any attempt to improve what goes on in a company...if you do not go to the root and see that it's how the work is organized that is the problem, then you're never going to be able to solve these problems. >You didn't say "organize the departments", you said "organize the work". What does it mean to organize the work? > >Any organization is, in fact, a system, meaning that it's a network of interdependent components that work together to achieve a goal. "Department" is not in that sentence, because we don't need departments, we need processes that flow, or projects that flow. #### See also - Angela Montgomery is at [Intelligent Management](https://intelligentmanagement.ws/) - [The Human Constraint - How Business Leaders Can Embed Continuous Innovation, Conflict Resolution, and Problem Solving Into Daily Practice](https://www.routledge.com/The-Human-Constraint-How-Business-Leaders-Can-Embed-Continuous-Innovation-Conflict-Resolution-and-Problem-Solving-Into-Daily-Practice/Montgomery/p/book/9781032644264) by Angela Montgomery - [The Goal](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113934.The_Goal) by Eliyahu Goldratt - [[Episode 57 Domenico Lapore - Getting Unstuck]] - [[Episode 87 Organization Silos (Business Traditions That Have to Stop Now Part 1)]] %% lSamuel Beckett [[The Human Constraint - Index]] the real challenge is that there are certain mental models that, if left unverbalized, can prevent a company or organization from achieving its potential. On the flip side, surfacing and challenging those mental models allows companies to embrace the change process, organize for speed of flow, overcome fragmentation and silo thinking, and free up capacity (and talent) they were unaware they already had. Transformation of the prevailing management style into one of system optimization. Instead of an organization being artificially divided up into functions and departments, it should be understood as one, unified system, so information can flow from the outside all the way through to the customer, then back again in a feedback loop, allowing continuous improvement. So if it were true that everything was completely unified, then ultimately, there were no conflicts, just unity at the deepest, most essential level. And the point was to tap into that higher level of reasoning where conflicts didn’t exist. It wasn’t about enduring the trials of this world in the hope of a better afterworld, but fusing the two worlds together, heaven and earth, here and now. - [[Episode 57 Domenico Lapore - Getting Unstuck]] - [[Episode 58 Domenico Lapore - Breaking the Core Conflict]]