Optionality Doctrine

Management System Thinking Miniseries

Is your plan of action optimal?  Can it be better?  What options do you have to make it better? 

This is a natural thought pattern for any activity.  For example, when driving from point A to B in traffic we continually question: is this route or that route better, should I be in this lane or that lane, should I drive behind this car or that car?  As humans we are always looking for better ways to do something, and in the history of humankind there has never been more options to do so.

Management System Thinking and Revolutionary Thought

Management system thinking is, itself, a product of preceding innovations, least of which is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) codification of basic management system architecture.  Waves of innovation are commonly described in the context of Industrial Revolutions as follows:

• 1^st Industrial Revolution (circa late 18^th century) – mechanization through steam and water power.

• 2nd Industrial Revolution (circa late 19th century) – master…