Diversity
and Ecosystem Health
A. Read the articles about diversity. Uncover interesting
tid bits of thought. Think about variety, diversity, productivity,
etc.
B. Now create a model of your ecosystem. Think as broadly
as you can. Include your customers, providers, investors.
What are the interrelationships? How do the parts create
a strong, viable whole? How do the parts "know"
they are a part of your ecosystem? What keeps the ecosystem
in balance?
C. What learnings from these readings do you want to incorporate
into your working environment? How will you monitor the
richness of your ValueWeb?
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| The
Weak-Interaction Effect
(perhaps combined with Gail's module in Diversity
and Ecosystem Health)
A. Review the materials on the Weak-Interaction Effect. While
reading this material, think about your organization in the
context of its weak and strong interactions with other members
of the ValueWeb.
B. Answer the following questions from both general and specific
vantage points. Given that weak interactions are more valuable
to the ValueWeb than strong interactions, how do you nourish
the weak interactions in a way that prevents them from becoming
too strong? At what point does an interaction move from being
beneficial (weak) to being potentially disruptive (strong).
How can you systematically weaken a strong interaction to
the point where it is beneficial to all involved?
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| Metrics,
How Do We Measure It?
A. What do you know about your organization?
Share your knowledge through numbers: how big $, people, products,
countries within, distribution centers, customers, buildings,
layers of management, years old, yearly growth, profits and
loss, supply chain members, etc. Find all the ways to measure
your organization through tangible numbers.
B. What do these numbers tell you? Build a model
using the numbers. How is this model useful?
C. Read the materials about measuring biodiversity.
Highlight important concepts.
D. Have a dialog: Now put your organization
within an ecosystem. You can decide if you want it to be The
Ecosystem or within a larger ecosystem/ValueWeb. From this
vantage point, how would you build a model that measures your
organization? What are the multidimensional aspects that you
want to include?
E. Create a multidimensional model for your
organization that helps you gauge its health. Include tangible
and intangible aspects. Think about matter, interdependencies,
spaces... How will you know you are healthy with your model?
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