Thinking side-wise A side-wise view of business and the enterprise

Why ’side-wise’?

Conventional business wisdom is easy to find: in the library, on the internet, the blogs and the business journals, from the academics or the big consultancies, or from colleagues in the club or pub. But mostly it’s the same old wisdom: it works as long as everything stays the same as it always did.

Which it doesn’t; so it doesn’t. Which is a problem.

Sometimes what’s needed most is unconventional wisdom: to quote a certain well-known scientist, a problem cannot be solved by the same thinking that caused that problem in the first place. To get out of a loop, a rut, we need to be able to jump sideways. Or, more particularly, think side-wise.

So every culture has had its side-wise thinkers: the maverick, the court-jester, the formal legal role of ‘devil’s advocate’ – the valued insider-outsiders who counter the otherwise inevitable ’stuckness’ and groupthink. Literally eccentric, aside from the centre, yet able to apply side-wise leverage to help the world turn the right way up. And it’s the same with our world: present-day business needs side-wise thinking to guide innovation and adaptation, to keep abreast and ahead of continual change.

Some of that ‘wisdom from the side’ may seem random at first, but it has its own definite discipline – the discipline of the generalist, weaving connecting threads across every other discipline and silo. So as well as identifying and annotating some of the new ideas and innovations coming side-wise down the track, one key aim of this site is to explore that deeper discipline of side-wise thinking – how to do it, why to do it, what to do (and not do), when and where to use it (and not use it), how to monitor and measure its impact and value.

So return here often for new ideas, new information – we trust you’ll find it of real value to your and your business.