Review exercises in “full colour thinking” using

• A distinction between puzzle and problem.

• The distinction between price and value.

• The distinction between the language-game we are playing and alternative language games we might be playing.

A REVIEW

Three Distinctions and Four Exercises

1. The distinction between puzzle and problem.

A puzzle has a solution. A puzzle works inside operations with symbols, e.g.

with words or numbers. Sometimes puzzles also work with regular

geometrical shapes, e.g. a rubik cube. Or with irregular shapes, like the shapes of the

pieces of a crossword puzzle. A puzzle can be modelled. You can program a

program a computer to solve it.

When we use the word “problem” the way we mean it when we make a puzzle-problem distinction…

• …the problem requires us to get farther outside the logic of our thought and into the world

• …the issues are messier and harder to reduce to calculations and rules

• …our symbolic operations may and may not be adequate for coping with reality as it is

• the map is not the territory• …the customs of our tribe are not the only not

not the only customs.

For example your company is making a profit but it is short of cash• Calculated on an accrual basis your financials show a gross

margin of 40% an EBIT of 20% and a bottom line profit of 10%

• But when you look at cash flow you find that you are paying your vendors on average in 20 days, while your customers are paying you on average in 40 days

• You do the math and you find that if you paid suppliers in 30 days on average, and customers paid you on average in 30 days then your company could easily pay its bills as they come due.

• Salespeople are instructed to insist on shorter credit terms, and procurement is instructed to insist on longer credit terms.

• PUZZLE SOLVED.

Nevertheless in the real world you still have a PROBLEM

-- because your customers are mostly unable or unwilling to pay sooner

-- and your suppliers are mostly unable or unwilling to accept payment later.

• (Now do Exercise One on the worksheet) works

2. The distinction between price and value.

Some economists (Robert Solow for example) have little use for the concept of value.

For Solow a price is a definite number. A sale for a price is an observable fact.

Value is regarded as an unnecessary word. Either it names the same thing as price or it names nothing clear and objective.

We have been emphasizing on the contrary

• ---that managers need to study the causes behind the numbers.

• -- They need insight into the deep motives that move customers, collaborators, and everybody.

• -- Shared value is more than shared numbers. It is shared satisfaction, shared dignity, shared vitality on the physical bottom line.

“Value” moves us to the level of

• --Biologically hard-wired

--and culturally meaningful

-- life.

• The word “value” like the word “problem” moves us from bounded to unbounded thinking.

• (Now do Exercise Two)

3. The distinction between the present language-game and its alternatives.

The concept of language-game was invented by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

In his 1921book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus he described the ideal ideal ideal language as a mirror faithfully faithfully reflecting all the facts.

In his later work* he saw language differently

• Instead of seeing language as a mirror of facts, he saw it as a functioning part of Sprachspielen (German for “language-games”)

• Besides words, other functioning parts of a Sprachspiel are people, things, activities, and rules.

• Language-games are “episodes in the natural history of human beings.”

• * Philosophical Investigatons, 1953

Wittgenstein describes a sample language game where the players are a carpenter and his

assistant

• When the carpenter calls for a “slab” or a “pillar” the assistant brings the piece of wood asked for.

• Cooperating physically with the help of language they build a house.

• Social life is made up of many language games.

• The customer and the checkout clerk at a super market play a Sprachspiel of buying and selling

• The checkout clerk calls for “ten rands”…

…and then the shopper hands her ten rands and

walks out the door with a loaf of bread.

• The customer satisfies a need for food.• The clerk also satisfies physical needs. With her wages

she buys bread too.• USING WITTGENSTEIN´S IDEA WE CAN ANALYZE

THE GAMES WE ARE PLAYING AND ALSO ALTERNATIVE GAMES WE MIGHT BE PLAYING.

• (Now do Exercises Three and Four)