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The Sixth Sense: Accelerating Organisational Learning with Scenarios
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Sales rank 602,458
Customers rating (based on 2 reviews)
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This book is about organizational survival: the reasons why organizations do not always survive, and what can be done about it. Survival means creating value for stakeholders, and the survival problem starts with uncertainty, change and the need for organizations to adapt to shifting needs and market conditions. The key question is 'Why are organizations slow to change and adapt?' Unsuccessful organizations are distinguished by their failure to overcome thinking and behavioural flaws at personal, organizational and community levels. In this book, we explain what these flaws are and how the scenario approach helps senior managers and organizations to overcome them. Our approach is based on reasoning, research, real world observations - and a long track record developing scenario-based thinking, combining the most effective elements of the many scenario approaches that have been tried over time. "Organizational learning and scenario planning are seen by many business people as two separate disciplines, with different programmes and communities of practice. This book builds a bridge between the two. I believe this is important. It will invite the organizational learners to develop a deeper perspective on the longer-term business environment, and it will invite the scenario planners to consider their work in the context of organizational survival and development. Both will be better off, to the benefit of their organizations." —Arie de Geus, author of The Living Company "Helping organizations learn their way into the future in a world of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity is what The Sixth Sense is all about. The book is a deep, insightful and practical guide to the tools an organization needs to break through the limits of its own thinking. Scenario thinkers and planners working to make their organizations adaptive learners will find invaluable tools and examples to guide their own development." —Peter Schwartz, co-founder and chair of Global Business Network and author of The Art of the Long View.
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| Publisher | Wiley | | Release date | 09/2002 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $49.95 | | Our price | $33.51 (you save 32.91%) | | Used price | from $24.95 |
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 Insightful!
This book disserves itself by purporting to be merely about scenario planning, although it covers that subject thoroughly. In fact, it's one of the most lucid, interesting examinations of fortune and folly you will ever read. The recapitulation of disastrous episodes at a handful of once-great companies shows just how little inclined the gods are to spare the proud. Closed minds and entrenched habits of thought managed to afflict even such a venturesome New Economy firm as Yahoo! Originality and experimentation bless even companies in humdrum industries, such as packaging. Captivating anecdotes and illustrations are, in fact, the meat of the book. The scenario planning analysis, while solid, is less convincing than the cases themselves. At times, the book shows the weaknesses that are probably inevitable when so many authors share creation. It tends to meander and, now and then, loses its way in jargon-choked thickets. But, we assure you, the clarity of the cases redeems it and makes it valuable.
 Scenario conversations as agents of change
The key theme of this book is that the appropriate use of scenario thinking is a highly effective way of catalyzing organizational change and, in particular, minimizing the risk that the organization will suffer due to learning disabilities such as 'group think' or a variety of other flaws in organizational thinking.The focus is therefore on the process by which the management group can improve their ability to shape their future, through the way in which they engage with the creation of scenarios, and in strategic conversations about their implications in the context of the 'business idea' (competitive stance and advantages) of the organization.This book represents a consolidation and further exploration of ideas first put forward in van der Heijden's Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation. As a successor, it does not have the impact of the first book, and it goes into issues of learning disabilities to a level of detail that can be tedious to those who are familiar with these issues. None the less, it is very useful in reinforcing a sound appreciation of the value of scenarios and the importance of the process by which they are generated and used.There are very useful summaries at the end of each chapter and at the end of the book. My main criticism is that the authors do not seem to have quite worked out whether they were writing a practical guide for business people or a text for students.
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