Database standards: silver bullet or boat anchor?

AbstractMore and more people and organisations who are addressing complex sustainability challenges are turning to systems change practices. They are looking to get to grips with complexity and to better understand how to use their resources, position and influence to address the challenges. These people are working across civil society, philanthropy, business, international development, government and beyond. Many hope that adopting this emerging practice will give them the answers to the long held questions of – How do I know where to intervene? How do I know that what I am doing is the ‘right’ thing? Am I using my resources for their greatest effect? Once we have set ambitious goals around issues like inequality and climate change, how do I know I am creating impact?. In 1999 Donella Meadows wrote a paper entitled Leverage points: places to intervene in a system to help translate the work of systems dynamics into understanding where a small amount of energy might have a greater effect. Ever since, practitioners have been chasing these elusive leverage points trying to understand how this might be made useful and practical. There is, however, no silver bullet to changing a system. At Forum for the Future and through the School of System Change, we work on a number of different projects such as the Protein Challenge and Boundless Roots Community as well as collaborate on, coach and co-inquire with others such as the Marine CoLAB, Oneless, Lankelly Chase Foundation. In this paper we seek to build on systems change ideas and theories, using Forum for the Future experience of working with these ideas in practice, and offer actionable knowledge (Coghlan 2007) to other change makers who are grappling with these questions. This paper provides four qualities that help us understand the dynamics of a changing system, and how potential in these dynamics might be identified and be translated into strategy and interventions. I explore and illustrate these through cases and examples and raise the question about how change makers might value what we measure when understanding impact in the context of a changing system.

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Excellence in IT Project Management

International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals ◽

10.4018/ijhcitp.2015070105 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 71-84

Author(s):

Michael Elliott ◽

Ray Dawson

Keyword(s):

Project Management ◽

Career Paths ◽

Step Change ◽

It Project Management ◽

Technology Learning ◽

Agile Methodology ◽

Current Thinking ◽

It Project ◽

Personal Skills ◽

Silver Bullet

With almost thirty years since the start of our quest to find Fred Brooks' magical “Silver Bullet” to slay our productivity horrors, and twenty years since the first Standish report on IT project success and failures, are we getting closer? This paper discusses and challenges current thinking on process improvement initiates to provide answers of how we can significantly improve IT project productivity and consider that to achieve a step change in improvement requires a different approach. Recent Standish research has highlighted the Agile Methodology as being particularly successful for the smaller IT project. However, what specifically is creating this improvement? Is it the process itself or is there something that the process enables? The hypothesis presented is that in order to create the step change improvement in IT project management delivery, we need to significantly improve the inter-personal skills of the whole IT project management team. The revolution for improved productivity will stem from challenging the typical career paths of technology learning to provide a much greater focus on the softer skills.

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Sustainable grazing management in rangelands: Over a century searching for a silver bullet

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment ◽

10.1016/j.agee.2019.05.020 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 283 ◽

pp. 106561 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Agustina di Virgilio ◽

Sergio A. Lambertucci ◽

Juan M. Morales

Keyword(s):

Grazing Management ◽

Sustainable Grazing ◽

Silver Bullet

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Technology: The Silver Bullet for Production Decline?

Journal of Petroleum Technology ◽

10.2118/0204-0020-jpt ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 56 (02) ◽

pp. 20-80

Author(s):

Stuart Ferguson

Keyword(s):

Silver Bullet

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e-Roster policy: Insights and implications of codifying nurse scheduling

Health Informatics Journal ◽

10.1177/1460458217724579 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 844-857 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert G Drake

Keyword(s):

Common Language ◽

Nurse Rostering ◽

Nurse Scheduling ◽

Codified Knowledge ◽

Nurse Rostering Problem ◽

Ward Level ◽

The Common ◽

Everyday Interaction ◽

Executive Level ◽

Silver Bullet

Following a decade of dissemination, particularly within the British National Health Service, electronic rostering systems were recently endorsed within the Carter Review. However, electronic rostering necessitates the formal codification of the roster process. This research investigates that codification through the lens of the ‘Roster Policy’, a formal document specifying the rules and procedures used to prepare staff rosters. This study is based upon analysis of 27 publicly available policies, each approved within a 4-year period from January 2010 to July 2014. This research finds that, at an executive level, codified knowledge is used as a proxy for the common language and experience otherwise acquired on a ward through everyday interaction, while at ward level, the nurse rostering problem continues to resist all efforts at simplification. Ultimately, it is imperative that executives recognise that electronic rostering is not a silver bullet and that information from such systems requires careful interpretation and circumspection.

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