Breaking the Wall of Organizational Ignorance

Description

Organizations that deal with long-term social, commercial, or organizational policy planning face complex and shifting problems that cannot be successfully treated with traditional linear, analytical approaches. These issues, called "wicked problems" or "social messes" in the early 1970s for their nonobjectively assessable nature, causes, boundaries, and solutions, are at the core of Robert Horn's interdisciplinary studies in visual language. This political scientist - whose academic career in policy communication, social learning, and knowledge management has brought him from Harvard to Stanford - has worked since the 1960s on methodologies to analyze and communicate complex subject matters to public and private organizations. In this video lecture from the 2011 Falling Walls Conference, Horn explains how his methodology is enabling the use of highly visual cognitive maps and small group processes to aid the policy-making process related to government social programs, bureaucracy, and strategic issues such as nuclear waste disposal.

Runtime

15 min

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

[2012], c2011

Database

Films on Demand

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