𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞! It was @nntaleb that drove home to me that aging should not be seen using the distance from birth, rather through the estimated distance from death. I like to visit and walk the cemeteries whenever I’m in a new city to remind myself of the eventuality and give me the courage to speak truth to power. I recently went back to Japan after 20 years. Here is me walking the cemetery in Kyoto. Well, why am I talking about this now? I wrote a book! A book that I wrote knowing that I’m going to be dead one day and that I must come clean about the mistakes I made as a Tech. leader. Failed executives don’t write books about their failures. They just go on to make millions and fail elsewhere. They may appear to be a success if you just look at quantifiable metrics like their net worth or the share price of their company. But they are miserable failures if you look closely at what they did to the lives of their employees - bureaucracy, burn out, forced relocations, layoffs, etc. So I decided to write a book that catalogs and details many of my mistakes. On thinking deeper, they are not just my mistakes, but the mistakes of mainstream management in general - I simply took them for granted without questioning their validity and effectiveness. As much as I have become skeptical of anything prescriptive (what to do) that ignores the unique context in front of us, I think it is important to talk about what NOT to do. So, I made sure this book is full of negative advice (what NOT to do) - traps and pitfalls you must avoid. Why negative advice? I go back to Nassim Taleb, who explains the why elegantly: “I have used all my life a wonderfully simple heuristic: charlatans are recognizable in that they will give you positive advice, and only positive advice, exploiting our gullibility and sucker-proneness for recipes that hit you in a flash as just obvious, then evaporate later as you forget them. Just look at the “how to” books with, in their title, “Ten Steps for - - ” (fill in: enrichment, weight loss, making friends, innovation, getting elected, building muscles, finding a husband, running an orphanage, etc.). Yet in practice it is the negative that’s used by the pros, those selected by evolution: chess grandmasters usually win by not losing; people become rich by not going bust (particularly when others do); religions are mostly about interdicts; the learning of life is about what to avoid.” Grab a copy here: cyb3rsyn.com/products/mmm-bo… #leadership #systemsthinking #complexity #cybernetics #philosophy

Strategic Planning Is an Oxymoron. - @Mintzberg141 Checkout the full podcast episode on YouTube: youtu.be/xAnGfbfmCTQ #strategy #planning #leadership #systemsthinking #complexity

“Annuity bros” are the “supplement bros” of finance.

Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast - Episode 51 In this episode, renowned management expert Henry Mintzberg (@Mintzberg141) discusses his book "Bust Those Management Myths," challenging traditional corporate wisdom that relies heavily on spreadsheets, strict planning, and top-down control. Mintzberg asserts that "strategic planning" is an oxymoron because genuine strategies emerge organically from ground-level actions rather than abstract boardroom predictions. He critiques boards and executives for disconnecting from what they manage, over-relying on metrics and shareholder value, and blaming implementers when strategies fail. Mintzberg introduces “communityship” as a necessary counterweight to individual-centric leadership, explaining how excessive measurement & hierarchical thinking can weaken organizational soul and trust. Mintzberg advocates for a balanced approach where leadership integrates intuition and judgment alongside metrics to build sustainable, soulful businesses. Check out the podcast episode and my reflections: cyb3rsyn.com/p/bust-those-ma… #leadership #communityship #systemsthinking

If your risk management depends on your ability to accurately predict the future, you are doomed to fail.

Only the inefficient bees survive! Imagine you're a management consultant hired by a beehive. You notice that roughly 20% of the bees ignore the waggle dance and fly off in random directions. Almost all of them come back with nothing. Obvious waste. You introduce OKRs, a waggle dance compliance dashboard and a performance improvement plan for the bottom 5%. Next quarter, nectar is up. The hive is 100% efficient. You get a case study! Then the cows eat the only meadow, nobody knows where anything else is, and the hive starves to death on the back of its best quarter ever. Evolution ran this experiment for millions of years and kept the inefficient bees. We ran it for a couple of decades with just-in-time supply chains and found out in 2021 with the supply chain chaos. The skier Hermann Maier wore a zero-friction suit that made him the fastest man on the mountain. Then he fell, and the suit meant nothing could slow him down. Efficiency is wonderful right up until the moment you need to stop. When you blindly optimize, you actually fragilize. I discuss this and many other mistakes Silicon Valley executives make in my book, 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: cyb3rsyn.com/products/mmm-bo… #leadership #systemsthinking #complexity #cybernetics

“𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀… 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁… … 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁, 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁.” - 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐛𝐲 #leadership #cybernetics #systemsthinking

Why CEOs Ignore Better Advice? Listen to Bob Emiliani's explanation and checkout the podcast episode here: youtu.be/mUaqxoweyFE Remember that innovation happens in the frontier... Not in the mainstream. "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐞." - 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐀𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐬 #leadership #systemsthinking

Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast - Episode 50 In this episode, Bob Emiliani argues that lean has been reduced to a worker’s toolbox, misdiagnosed its real “customer”, and faces a credibility problem because widespread Toyota-like transformations never materialized; critics are often ignored, deflected, or blocked. He contrasts classical management with progressive management, warning that leadership or ownership changes commonly trigger reversion to classical practices and suggesting promoting from within helps people-centric practices to survive turnover. Bob explains how preconceptions shape beliefs, behaviors, and competencies, why leaders struggle to detect them, why behavior-based training is often dead-end and how all of this pain might get carried over into AI systems. A MUST WATCH for Silicon Valley Executives: cyb3rsyn.com/p/the-trouble-w… #leadership #systemsthinking

The K-shaped economy is redrawing the airplane. Premium seats will fill most of the cabin and bring in most of the revenue, even when outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 by economy. Exhibit A: JAL A350-1000 (84 premium vs 155 economy):

𝘐𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨... Sneak Preview of Episode 50 of Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast with Bob Emiliani #leadership #systemsthinking #lean #complexity #cybernetics

What a great incentive from the government to improve the quality of service of our airlines/airports 😉

Classical vs Progressive Management In Silicon Valley, we pride ourselves on innovation and building the future. Yet behind the curtain of modern tech innovation, a startling paradox exists: most tech. companies are managed using organizational frameworks back from the nineteenth century. Despite our industry's obsession with disruptive thinking, tech leadership remains deeply trapped in classical management patterns — rigid functional silos, top-heavy command-and-control hierarchies, toxic political maneuvering, and agonizingly slow decision-making processes and more. Checkout the podcast episode with Bob: youtu.be/2IM-6cIlG_k #leadership #systemsthinking

The System of Profound Privilege - by Bob Emiliani Listen to Bob explaining why the status quo prevails and Lean implementations fail... His explanation reminded me of the following quote: "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧." ~ 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐨𝐟𝐟 Checkout the podcast episode here: youtu.be/2IM-6cIlG_k #leadership #lean #systemsthinking