32: The Century of the System with James Krantz

This conversation is important for anyone working in
organisations, and trying to make sense of systems
thinking.  Jim has been working with systems for many years
and offers insights into how systems thinking evolved, why it is
so important, and also why it is problematic and creates
resistances.  Drawing on psychoanalysis as a ‘moral’
practice, Jim believes that unless we understand the
psychodynamics and emotions that are at play when we take a
systems approach, it will likely fail.  For example, he
describes how systems thinking removes the option of blaming the
binary ‘bad other’, which is our comfortable fall-back position
in so many instances.  Applying systems thinking we are all
implicated and part of the challenges, and the problems we face
are about interactions between things rather than the objects
themselves. Jim brings a very humanistic lens to systems thinking
and it is a  privileged to share this conversation and the
wisdom and insights shared. 


Bio


James Krantz, Ph.D. is an organizational consultant and
researcher from New York City, where he is a Principal of Worklab
Consulting, LLC.  Jim has written extensively about the
unconscious in work organizations, the dilemmas of leadership and
authority in new forms of organization, and the challenges
involved in developing one’s leadership voice.  His Ph.D. is
in Systems Sciences from the Wharton School. 


 In addition to consulting, Jim has been on several
faculties, including those of Yale and Wharton.  Currently
he serves on the faculty of the School of Higher Economics in
Moscow.  Jim is past President of the International Society
for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, Fellow of the A.K.
Rice Institute, Member of OPUS and Chair of the Management
Committee of the Organisational and Social Dynamics
journal.