Why Are We in Compression? *º

Most work organizations deal with much more complexity than 50 or 100 years ago, but we also have more means to deal with it. Beyond that our early 21st century challenges are in five arbitrary categories, each of which is constantly changing. (See the figure and chapter 1 of the book, Compression.) (#45525)

Compression vs. Expansion Thinking *º

In Compression we must learn to guide our actions using physical measurements before applying financial ones. This applies to all organizations: for-profit, non-profit, and government. Because this turns expansionary economic thinking upside down, Compression is primarily a human challenge. (#45526)

What is Compression? *º

"Compression" relates many different concepts. 1. Population explosion. 2. Resource limits. 3. Ecological stress from human activity. 4. Reducing the "footprints" of human activity -- eliminating waste. 5. Learning a lot more and converting it to action faster in complex organizational work. (#45529)

Vigorous Learning Organizations *º

Such an organization is structured and culturally developed for maximum learning by everyone, collectively. It strives to fulfill a mission related to Compression with as much vigor and innovation as possible. But "vigorous" means that it does things; it doesn't just research topics. (#45527)

Changing the World *

Changing the whole of humanity in a short time is impossible. Even if we see that change is urgent, we can't easily reshape engrained human instincts and behaviors, our "tribal" politics as usual. We have to start with our vital working organizations. Tough as that seems, it at least has a chance. (#50812)

Industrial Society *

An industrial society depends on high use of energy and materials. Only a fraction of its people may work in agriculture, mining, or manufacturing. At maturity, most of its GNP maps a service industry superstructure built up from this base, turning it into a resource consumption machine. (#52230)

Operational Objectives *º

Globally improve quality of life to an industrial society equivalent, using no more than half the energy and half the virgin raw materials as in the year 2000, and reducing known toxic releases to zero. (#45794)