Latest Blog Posts

messes
A Perspective of Social Messes
By Gerrit Van Wyk. Wicked problems. The dominant way of social planning, as Rittel and Webber argued, is mechanistic, whereas many of the problems we face are complex. It means problems difficult...
maze
The Anatomy of a Medical Diagnosis
By Gerrit Van Wyk Hubris. There is what is supposed to happen during a medical diagnosis, there is what can make it better, and there is what we believe about what happens during it. When...
lion
Mind Maps. The Stories We Carry in Our Minds.
By Gerrit Van Wyk. Wild and tame lions. Famous South African storyteller, Jan Spies, told a story about a cattle farmer who had trouble with a lioness killing his stock. He and his friends tracked...
shadow
Hidden Conversation
By Gerrit Van Wyk. What the shadow says. For those who remember the satire of Mad Magazine, the December 1969 issue had a skit titled The Shadow Knows, with drawings of everyday situations and...
TRex
Corporate Healthcare: Amalgamating Health Regions
By Gerrit Van Wyk. T. Rex healthcare. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was a large dinosaur living in North America about 60 million years ago, after which it went extinct because it couldn’t adapt. The...
river
The Implementation Problem
By Gerrit Van Wyk. You can’t step into the same river twice. Gareth Morgan wrote in Images of Organization our interpretations of organizations is always based on some sort of theory to...
Monkeys
Wilful Ignorance: Pretending Not to Know
By Gerrit Van Wyk. Three wise monkeys. There is a Japanese proverb about three monkeys; one covers its eyes and sees no evil, one covers its ears and hears no evil, and one covers its mouth and...
wallet
Physician Remuneration is A Mess
By Gerrit Van Wyk. The art of medicine is the most lucrative of all (Pliny the Elder, 24-79 CE). Despite what Pliny the Elder said somewhere between 24 and 79 CE, for most medical practitioners,...
Alcohol
Making Decisions Logically
By Gerrit Van Wyk. The prohibition disaster. The 18th Amendment to the US constitution, which made it illegal to make, transport, or sell alcohol, was signed in January 1920, but it remained...
Bullying
We Are All Potential Bullies
By Gerrit Van Wyk. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The slogan “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” implies you can do what you want, and it will remain secret, without consequences. A...