David J. Abbott

1 day ago | businessdailyafrica.com | David J. Abbott

“A large eye does not mean keen vision” goes a Rwandan proverb. Is the idea of the rational manager a myth? Do we see the business problem not as it is, but as we are? Just as the menu item is not the meal, how does one assess a system’s behaviour? How does applying the ancient idea of yin and yang help managers to become more effective? “We are not only irrational, but predictably irrational ... that our irrationality happens the same way, again and again.

1 week ago | businessdailyafrica.com | David J. Abbott

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution,” said Albert Einstein. With imagination trumping knowledge, do we overrate our ability to know the future, and plot an intelligent course? What is technical lock? What recently published book on Kenyan history did a quiet Kenyan thinker –equally at home with financial analysis and English literature–recommend?

2 weeks ago | businessdailyafrica.com | David J. Abbott

“We don’t talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about,” observed systems thinker Fred Kofman. How much do we think about how we think? Look at a tree, a dog, or a tea field. Do straight lines exist in nature? Can a one track reliance on linear straight line thinking get us into trouble? What is single loop learning? What is double loop learning, that can perk up imagination, fueling innovation? Managers create their world in their speaking.

3 weeks ago | businessdailyafrica.com | David J. Abbott

“We can’t control systems or figure them out. But we can dance with them!” wrote systems guru, Donella Meadows. We tend to be fascinated by events, glued to the moment. Missing the forces hidden behind the curtain that decide how the actors in the three-act play, that we call ‘business’ perform. Why are managers ‘predicably irrational’ only seeing the attractive obvious, often ignoring what is more difficult to understand, that does not jive with conventional wisdom.

4 weeks ago | businessdailyafrica.com | David J. Abbott

“Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind – to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches.