Mike Metcalfe's Ideas Research
Concept-Driven Strategy
A strategy is only as good as the ideas (concept) driving it.
I am interested in developing, by research and application, a means of strategic thinking (and project definition) that is uses the pluralistic Pragmatic philosophy. I believe this provides a means of helping organisations think usefully, but creatively, about the complex social (wicked/messy) problems. Given that Pragmatism suggests being very explicit about the concepts (ideas, visions) used to think about a problem domain, it is sometimes called concept-led, 'concept-driven' (or idea driven) thinking. See this diagram for an overview and/or this article for some more details on the underlying philosophy. So it is suggested that strategists might use a concept like agility, innovation and/or visibility to decide how to respond to some perceived threat or opportunity. Some readers will recognise the approach as akin to one stream of systems thinking, that usually associated with C West Churchman, Russell Ackoff, Richard Mason and Ian Mitroff.
I have been consulted by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the South Australian Government on Treasury, Energy and Mining, the New Zealand Government Treasury, the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, the South Australian Chamber of Industry and others. I have completed ten PhD candidates and have published over 50 refereed papers in the last five years.
Some of the particular concepts, (or ideas) that we have developed in the past to assist organisation include reflection, purpose/intent, between-ness (connectivity), synthesis, irony, argument, TO&P analysis, orality, the 6W's, systems, sketching, boundary, contradiction, emergence, small worlds and self-organisation theory. My co-authors and I used these to help with thinking creatively about strategy, project definition, problem solving, organisational design, intelligence gathering and measuring innovation. For more details on each of these concepts see the menu on the left under papers and publications
For a classic definition of concepts or ideas see Piaget’s Hymn To The Idea (PDF 49kb).
For more on concept driven research design (aka argumentative inquiry) see the left hand menu
Contact: Mike Metcalfe, mike.metcalfe@unisa.edu.au; Home Page Tel: 08 - 8302 - 0268