Blog ‘Admin’

Plugging a long-standing ‘giant’ hole

giantknave Blog 'Admin'

Plugging a holeThis is just a very quick ‘blog admin’ post to let regular readers of this site know that, having neglected things for some months, I’ve finally plugged a long-standing hole in my list of giants…

Here’s the link to a newly published blog page on Walter Shewhart (1891 – 1967) and Donald Wheeler. I hope that you find it interesting and perhaps useful.

Oh, and I’ve finally opened my wallet and upgraded the site (from ‘free’ to a paid plan) so that you shouldn’t see adverts anymore. I’m hoping that this makes your reading much easier.

Cheers,

Steve

An addition to ‘My Giants’

giantknave Blog 'Admin' ,

Another giantThis quick post is to let readers know that I have just added another giant bio to the blog.

I’m writing a post at the moment about hard vs soft systems thinking and, in so doing, I realised that I had written (i.e. drafted) a ‘giant’ page for Peter Checkland two years ago…and never completed it.

…so, for those that are interested, I have rectified that here. My next post will add much more ‘meat to the bones’ of hard and soft systems thinking.

FYI: I introduced some of Checkland’s thinking in an earlier 2016 post called “What I think is…”

Over and out for now,

Steve

Evolution: 2014 – 2018

giantknave Blog 'Admin' , ,

Evolution-des-wissens

Most things evolve and this blogging lark is no different.

My blog started off as a way to get the ‘madness at work’ things off my chest….which probably explains why the first few posts could be considered a bit ‘ranty’. Ho hum.

I then got a bit more thoughtful (I think). I adopted a stance of ‘professional provocation’ – challenging the status quo but doing so with analysis and evidence…and the length of my posts got longer. Sorry about that.

Then I realised that the blog was a rather useful extension of my work educating and coaching people.  It became a sort of service: you could pick up the phone or drop by my desk – have a conversation about your situation, receive some well-intended ‘organisational therapy’ from me and a promise that I’d try to put our conversation into useful and re-usable words. I’d usually get something out ‘within a week’…. though not always – some of the more involved posts took months!

And at some stage throughout all that, I realised that it was all rather generic anyway. It is applicable to people in organisations all around the world…hence why I decided that anyone curious could read it for themselves.

When ‘going public’ I wanted to keep myself anonymous because I don’t think that people need to know who the hell I am – my words should either stand up as being interesting, credible and useful or not.

Things have slightly changed for me over the last six months – I’ve been dabbling with ‘doing my own thing’ (i.e. from employment to solo consulting)…which partly explains why the blog went rather quiet. I spent a bit of time writing and piloting a one-day education course titled ‘Systems Thinking and Intervention: The Fundamentals’. The day is based around the elements of Deming’s ‘Theory of Profound Knowledge’.

If you are (or know of) a curious organisation in New Zealand (or perhaps over in Australia) and find my work interesting, then you are very welcome to contact me for a chat. I can help with initial education (such as my one-day course) and then with coaching and supporting the curious, to study and improve their system.

  • You can contact me* at: Steve@Schefer.co.uk
  • You can also have a read through my 1 page (2-sided) course brochure:

Systems Thinking and Intervention – The fundamentals – course leaflet

Okay, that’s enough of that! Don’t worry – I’m not about to change this blog into an attempted sales tool 🙂 . I’m interested in talking to people who would like to pull my help. I have no desire to push it onto anyone!

* I’ve also added an ‘About me’ page to the blog menu bar and this also contains my contact details.

Thanks for reading,

Steve

 

A recent addition: An index!

giantknave Blog 'Admin'

Alphabetized organizing filing system, close-up. Shot in studio with Phase One.

So it’s been a little over two years since I started this blog and I’ve now published well over 100 posts. So many that I forget what I’ve actually written about!

If I’m looking for something particular in my, ahem, ‘back catalogue’ (which is often the case), then how do I go about finding it?

Well, by a few routes:

  • I have tried to add links in each new post to relevant past posts…but this has become harder to achieve;

and if you scroll down the right hand side of the blog you will find:

  • a search box…but you kind of need to know the name of what you are looking for (easier for me…but ‘mind games’ for you);
  • the ‘tag cloud’…but, whilst this is good, it doesn’t show everything; and
  • an archive list (by month published)…but this is to play a game of chronological ‘pot luck’.

You can see then that there’s a few ways to attempt to find things…but none of them are very good, let alone complete!

Therefore, in the spirit of improvement, I have added an index, structured around two key models:

  • Study: “how the work works” (Seddon’s Check model); and
  • Intervention: “how to change it” (Deming’s Theory of Profound Knowledge).

Each of these models is then broken down into categories within.

If you are interested in exploring around the complete set of posts published to date (whether in general, or for something in particular) then I hope you find it of use 🙂

Example: If you want to focus on, say ‘measurement’ then you can go to the set of posts that deal with this area

I’ve even tried to be clever and (through the help of WordPress help forums1 🙂 ) created model diagrams with selectable (i.e. ‘clickable’) regions within – as a self confessed technophobe I’ve surprised myself!…but of course it might not work for you!(?)

You will find the index in the top right of the blog:

index

…have an explore, ‘click around’ and see what you make of it.

So…going forward:

Every time I publish a post I will add it to the relevant region of the index.

Feedback on how this index works out for you will be much appreciated…and any other suggestions for improvements are most welcome.

Bonus…

Oh yes…and just in case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve recently added two very worthy giants to my list: Jay Forrester and Donella Meadows.

Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year/ Good wishes whatever your particular (non)‘theist’ or ‘calendar’ variety is.

Footnote

1. I used the following site to create the code for mapping regions of each model (as suggested to me by Timethief ):      http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/imap.htm

 

 

About my giants…

giantknave Blog 'Admin'

giant-panda-clip-art-dTr4bjGT9When I started this blog I always intended to include a list of who I considered to be my giants, along with an introduction to each of them.

I have been writing such information over the last few months but I hadn’t got around to adding them to this blog site.

This post is to inform you that I have (finally) got off my backside and rectified this. If you look at the home page you will now see a page entitled ‘My Giants’. You can also see that I have added a page for each of the first six of these giants…which should be enough for anyone interested to be getting on with.

I hope you find the information interesting and of some use.

p.s. I’ve got other giants in mind to add to the list and I will do so as time allows.

Welcome to this blog!

giantknave Blog 'Admin'

blog-4-ship-launch-v21This inaugural post is to simply ‘smash the bottle of champagne across the prow of the proverbial ship and say “I name this blog ‘Squire to the Giants’. May WordPress bless her and all who visit and tend her.” Please bear in mind that she is deliberately semi-built and will continuously improve as we use her and find out how to get the best.

I will have seeded the blog with a dozen or so ‘starter’ brain fart blogs before inviting anyone to join so that the cupboards aren’t bare when you first come on board.

Before digging into any of the posts, I ask that you read:

  • About this blog

My longer term intent is to write posts within the following categories:

  • About the Giants: in which I will write a post per Improvement Guru, introducing you to them and what they have achieved, written etc.
  • Article Reviews: for posts about relevant articles (e.g. as published in the likes of Harvard Business Review)
  • Book Reviews: for posts that introduce a key book and a summary of its content and messages
  • Brain Farts: the main set of posts, where I will share a thought with you…for you to consider and perhaps comment.

I hope you enjoy. Constructive feedback is welcome. I will try not to get ‘too far up myself’ whilst writing (only time, and the nature of your comments, will tell if I achieve this!)