Russell Ackoff was one of the seminal thinkers in systems models of organization. Here is a short talk of his from 1994 that provides an excellent introduction to the topic.
Learning to see and understand the systems behavior of organizations is an excellent antidote to much of the mythology around organizations that functions in lieu of more powerful models.
I continue to be impressed by the insight and subtlety of the folks who put together xkcd. If you fancy yourself an organizational designer or believe that you are at the top of a food chain, you might want to consider this cartoon:
I’m taking some time this Labor Day to attack a host of backlogs, including things in my RSS stream that are worth sharing. Here’s a link to an infographic created and shared by Online Schools.
(who knows where this graphic has gone – linkrot will continue)