Kicking Command and Control Blog,

Thomas Friedman s Obsolete Model of Leadership

Posted by Roy Madron: Thomas Friedman's article in the NYT for 01 July is a classic expression of the obsolete Command and Control mindset in action. Read more: Thomas Friedman's Obsolete Model of Leadership [click]
Tags: american leadership failures, thomas friedman. Comments: 0.

Bad advice for Obama from US imperialist

Posted by Roy Madron: Leslie H. Gelb is one of those creepy Washington insiders who thinks the Vietnam War was a good thing, is a great fan of and nbsp; Nixon and Kissinger as and cannot see why anyone should object to the USA exerting its influence in every country on Earth through being world's and nbsp; number one military power. Read more: Bad advice for Obama from US
Tags: american leadership failures, obama cairo speech. Comments: 0.

Its the system, stupid,

Posted by Roy Madron: A systems-thinker's response to Anthony Lerman's question; What can religion offer politics and nbsp; Guardian 90626 Read more: Its the system, stupid, [click]
Tags: system failures, religion and politics. Comments: 0.

Simon Caulkin s Last Column

Posted by Roy Madron: and nbsp; The precision and force of Simon's last column shows just how important he should have been to any newspaper that purported to be concerned to give its readers journalism of the highest quality. and nbsp; Clearly, the Observer can no longer make such a claim with any semblance of credibility. This is a shameful day for the management of a
Tags: observer blundering, institutional stupidity. Comments: 0.

Simon Caulkin vs Observers mis Management

Posted by Roy Madron: Simon Caulkin is THE only British journalist working for a major newspaper (The Observer), who has made it his business to challenge Command and Control thinking. Read more: Simon Caulkin vs Observers mis Management [click]
Tags: bad management thinking, cost cutting follies. Comments: 2.

Understanding Islam, Rejecting Multi-culturalism

Posted by Roy Madron: Europe News recently published a translation of an article they entitled "DEMOCRACY AND THE INTERPLAY WITH RELIGION', by the Danish philosopher, Kai S and oslash;rlander. The original had first appeared in Danish in Berlingske magazine. S and oslash;rlander argues that the fundamental beliefs of Islam are incompatible with the models of secular
Tags: democracy vs multi culturalism, iranian racism. Comments: 0.

Paulo Freire s advice to revolutionary leaders

Posted by Roy Madron: On Monday, an article in the Guardian illustrated perfectly the wisdom of Paulo Freires's description of leadership behaviours that de-humanised their followers and their causes. The subject of the article by Narasimhan Ram, the editor of The Hindu, was Velupillai Prabhakaran, the man who led a separatist movement for the Tamil people of
Tags: tyrannical leadership, tamil separatism. Comments: 0.

An Open Letter to Baroness Helena Kennedy, GC.

Posted by Roy Madron: A reply to an invitation from Baroness Helena Kennedy to join over 1000 other people at the ' No Turning Back' Conference in London on June 13th. Read more: An Open Letter to Baroness Helena Kennedy, GC. [click]
Tags: 21st century socialism, no turning back. Comments: 0.

Comcast s heroic customer service manager

Posted by Roy Madron: Rick Germano, the head of the US telecom giant Comcast's customer service department, has given out his own email address for customers who are angry with his department. He said that this will be part of the company's efforts to improve its customer service reliability. Read more: Comcast's 'heroic' customer service manager [click]
Tags: call centre management, systems thinkers. Comments: 0.

APPLYING SYSTEMS THINKING TOTHE RYAN REPORT

Posted by Roy Madron: The blogs and nbsp; by the editor of the Jesuit Quarterly Review, Fergus O'Donoghue , about the 2,500 page Ryan Report on the horrific sexual, psychological and physical abuse of 30,000 Irish children consigned by the state to the and nbsp; 'care' of the ( ha ha) Christian Brothers and nbsp; and other Roman Catholic institutions are wonderfully revealing
Tags: irish catholic church abusers, authoritarian regimes. Comments: 0.

FAILURES OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP 02: OBAMA and GENERAL McCHRYSTAL

Posted by Roy Madron: and nbsp;When President Barack Obama invited Robert Gates to continue as his Secretary of Defence, it was clear that there was to be a seamless continuation of the Bush/ neo-conservative and nbsp; world view. Read more: FAILURES OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP 02: OBAMA and GENERAL McCHRYSTAL [click]
Tags: failed american leadership, general mcchrystal. Comments: 0.

FAILURES OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP: LOW QUALITY SENATORS

Posted by Roy Madron: I'm still in a state of shock from the US Senate's 90 and ndash; 6 vote against closing the Guant and aacute;namo Bay detention facility and transferring the prisoners (none of whom have been charged with an offence) to prisons on the US Mainland. Read more: FAILURES OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP: LOW QUALITY SENATORS [click]
Tags: american leadership failures, us senators. Comments: 0.

SYSTEMS THINKING TO THE RESCUE OF THE US ECONOMY

Posted by Roy Madron: Good ideas never really die. In 1971, Stafford Beer and a team of Chilean and European systems scientists designed a Cybernetic system, CYBERSYN, with which President Salvadore Allende and his ministers could manage the Chilean economy in real time. A brief account of the Cybersyn project is given by Andy Becket in this Guardian article.
Tags: real time economic management, obamas economics team. Comments: 1.

TUCOWS MANAGEMENT FAILURE: WHERE ARE THE SYSTEMS THINKERS

Posted by Roy Madron: Re: TUCOWS MANAGEMENT FAILURE Herewith Mr. Noss's response to my and my reply. From: elliot noss What phone number did you call was it [North American toll free: 866-731-6556 Direct: 416-538-5498] I see the issue was that your account was split into two. this happened on the migration and likely was the result of a small difference in
Tags: systems thinkers, tucows. Comments: 0.

IS TUCOWS ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE

Posted by Roy Madron: I have recently been trying for a week to renew my domain registrations with HOVER for www.gaianrevolution.com and www.gaianrevolution.org. For those who have the same kind of trouble with HOVER, or any other service provider I am posting the email I eventually sent to Elliot Noss, the CEO of its parent company TUCOWS. Read more: IS TUCOWS ON
Tags: tucows, systems thinkers. Comments: 0.

DIRECTV MANAGEMENT FAILURE ENRAGES CUSTOMERS

Posted by Roy Madron: Companies such as DIRECT TV are notorious for the bad service they provide. and nbsp; To gauge the effects on their would-be loyal customers take a look at Complaints Board. The complainers assume that the company is deliberately setting out to cheat them, and in some cases they may be right. and nbsp; But the more likely explanation is that the
Tags: management problems, taylorist techniques. Comments: 0.

Beyond Elections : A Review by Roy Madron

Posted by Roy Madron: Beyond Elections is a full-length documentary film, made by S and iacute;lvia Leindecker and amp; Michael Fox, produced by Estreito Meios. First, let me say that S and iacute;lvia Leindecker and Michael Fox have made a film that ought to be seen by anyone who cares about the future of both Latin America and the whole human family. It provides useful
Tags: 21st century competences, participatory budgets. Comments: 0.

BARRY SCHWARTZ ON WISDOM AT THE TED 2009 CONFERENCE

Posted by Roy Madron: Barry Schwartz tells the story of the father who went to buy a cold drink for his son at a ball-game and innocently brought back one that had a fraction of alcohol in it. and nbsp; The security guard spotted the kid with an illegal drink, hauled them out of their seats, called an ambulance, sent them under guard to hospital. Tests showed no alcohol
Tags: natural wisdom, barry schwartz. Comments: 2.

Wrecking Education in the UK

Posted by Roy Madron: This tale of folly, arrogance and betrayal was in the Guardian today. and nbsp; The catastrophe stems ultimately from the Command and Control mindset that permeates every level of education, politics and government . Politicians wreck our kids' education The result of rigid, centralised control of the curriculum has been inadequate schooling
Tags: wrecking education, new labour authoritarians. Comments: 1.

THE BURNING QUESTION

Posted by Roy Madron: A few days ago, and nbsp; Tom Engelhardt wrote an excellent piece for TomDispatch that 'j oined the dots ', first on global epidemic of fires and droughts, and then on the melt-down of the Global Monetocracy. [ Burning Questions: What Does Economic "Recovery" Mean on an Extreme Weather Planet ] He quotes Tim Flannery at length, and Flannery has
Tags: joining economics to ecology, authoritarians and the msm. Comments: 0.

21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP SKILLS: PART ONE

Posted by Roy Madron: Is there a tribe, a nation, or a people whose identity does not rest in part upon the heroic, even mythic exploits of its greatest leaders and liberators From Moses and Joshua, Pericles and Alexander, Horatio and Anthony, Genghis Khan and Ivan the Terrible, on to Arthur and Alfred, through Columbus and Pizarro, Joan of Arc and Napoleon,
Tags: 21st century competences, humanity as a superorganism. Comments: 0.

THE PRICE OF COMMAND AND CONTROL FOLLIES

Posted by Roy Madron: THESE THREE ARTICLES APPREAED IN THE GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER ON 14TH AND 15TH FEBRUARY 2009. The banks couldn't contain dissent and nbsp;Anthony Evans guardian.co.uk, Saturday 14 February 2009 and nbsp; and nbsp; Finally It's almost six months since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy (and in doing so marked the onset of the current financial crisis),
Tags: bank bosses, bankers and new labour. Comments: 0.

Command and Control and Authoritarian Leaders are different. Part Two

Posted by Roy Madron: and nbsp;After 40 years research on Authoritarian personalities, Robert Altemeyer has concluded that " militant authoritarianism has become a cancer upon the USA." and nbsp; Why and how he has reached these conclusions is explained in detail in his book "T HE AUTHORITARIANS" , and nbsp; and what follows is an attempt to condense its 267 pages into a
Tags: the authoritarian threa, religious right wing. Comments: 0.

Command and Control and Authoritarian Leaders are different. PT. 1

Posted by Roy Madron: It is important to be clear that the Command and Control paradigm relates to a particular, but erroneous, way of thinking about maintaining and improving organisational efficiency, effectiveness and performance. As John Seddon puts it: The prevailing thinking would have it that if each part of a system performs as specified (to budget), then
Tags: performance reducing, imposing command and control. Comments: 0.

Command and Control and New Labour s non-ideas

Posted by Roy Madron: In a blog for Labour List [ New media command and control doesn't work: we need to embrace and engage ] Lord Peter Mandelson said that and ldquo;when it comes to new media we have to recognise that the days of command and control are over. Instead we need to learn to embrace and engage. and rdquo; He preceded this remark, however, by saying
Tags: 21st century socialism, peter mandelson. Comments: 0.

Command and Control Thinking vs Learning Systems

Posted by Roy Madron: The term Human Learning Systems covers every kind of Learning Organisation from small teams to whole societies, taking businesses, political parties, social movements, public services, governments, along the way. Although many people have made and are making important contributions to our understanding of Human Learning Systems, two
Tags: the long term, learning societies. Comments: 0.

WE ARE GOING TO NEED THAT LAST ESCUDO

Posted by Roy Madron: A Spanish Grandee said 400 years ago, that wars are won by the side that has and ldquo; the last escudo and rdquo;. If our societies are to Kick Command and Control we will need billions of escudos, and dollars, euros, pounds, roubles, pesos, rupees and reals. Bill Gates' parents gave $400 Million to Cambridge University to endow the Gates
Tags: the long term, future generations. Comments: 0.