The Next Organization

Seeing the big picture to be effective in complex environments

Complex environments present a very different situation, where causal relationship is often not clear. This environment however very different from the focused and simplified situations we are familiar with in classical academic, books and teachings. As the result, efforts to improve efficiency in the wrong place lead to reduction in effectiveness. Looking at the big picture and defer judgment can help.

In a previous post, I discussed the examples of when efficiency is the opposite of effectiveness. The most important reason why this happens is broken link between cause and effect. In teaching environments, books and talks, to be able to convey the method and tactics, the background settings are condensed into relevant facts. Frameworks and simulations make it worse by creating an impression that results can be directly identified and related to actions. Meanwhile, people are rarely taught of how to collect the most important facts and link them together in real life. As the result, there is a prevalent misconception that causes and outcomes are obvious and appear close to each other. People tend to fix somewhere close to where the problem becomes evident. When paying attention to short-term events, human is often concluded as the main problem. Many don't know how to find the right "button" distance in time or place in systems to solve the problem. This is also a reason why many MBAs are bad managers in increasingly complex market and corporation environments.

From feeling under pressure to joyful - a new way to handle To-do list

As a "planning freak", like what my friends often call me, I over the years developed a quite useful and efficient system to bring my long- and short-term goals down to monthly plans and then to daily To-do lists. However, like many people, I always felt pressure when I look at a long list every day. A few events happened recently helped me to break away from this, at the same time improve my productivity.

On finding my own life mission

Having been back home after almost a year in September and October, I faced quite a tough time acknowledging how much the society I grew up from had changed, more in the bad direction than good. But the most important thing I gained from that trip was a great discovery, my life mission. Today, when I read a blog of a friend about to go back to Vietnam and at the same time thinking about changing his job, I suddenly had an "Aha" moment. I realized that I would not have found the mission for my life should I hadn't been in touch with my root.

Vietnamese teacher's day and people made me who I am

  It's Vietnamese teacher's day I sat down and thought about people who made me who I am today. I dedicate this note to them, in addition to the mails that I have just sent, hoping to show my appreciation for what they have done to me.

• Thank you, grandpa. You taught me how to read and write since I was 4. It not only helped me so much in my later school day, but more importantly, helped me to create a reading habit, which is the most critical way to improve myself now.
• Thank you, Mr. Trinh The Vinh, my late math teacher. You taught me a happy life was more than fame, career, but also patience and love.
• Thank you, Dr. Son Nguyen, who opened the world for me. You showed me that we can give and don't have to care about take. You taught me with your example one can change the world around him with what he does, today.
• Thank you, Dr. Viet Nguyen. You gave me the confidence to be myself, and the passion to help people to become who they can be.
• Thank you, Monica Worline. Though I was only a TA in your classes, I learned so much from your guidance and our conversations. You helped me see a new dimension in me and the world around.
• Thank you, Kembrel, the dean of my GBS program. You gave me the inspiration and passion. You showed if I believe that I can do the extraordinary, I can; and that if I live and act like a leader, I am.
• Thank you, Thuy Duong, Tuan Linh, Tuong and others of the Vong Tay Be Ban. You helped me to realize that the best way to fight the bad is to plant and nurture the seed of the good.
• Thank you my friend, Vu Thanh Tu Anh. You have said what I came to know that it's the mission of mine as well, or maybe it's the mission of our generation. We'll be the bridge stones, laying ourselves down as the foundation for the next generation. I will.