ChangeForge... - Latest Comments in Just What is ChangeForge?

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

maxr — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:59:17 -0000

Well written. Now just loose the typewriter font on the top banner and I will really be impressed.

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

kallan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:10:54 -0000

What more is there to say, Ken?

Thermodynamics is a broad discipline. It has been explored from many different points of view, from the particulate to the energy entities. It is quite definitely a 20th century Science.

But is was born out of necessity, through developments in business technology such as in the internal combustion engine and the jet engine. It is has been applied to heating systems, air-conditioning systems, atmospheric phenomena, including meteorological uses - it is legion.

There is no doubt in my mind that its principles have wide application, perhaps to things yet unexplored.

Ka kite

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

changeforge — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:00:54 -0000

Ken, quite the contrary... I completely agree with all observations and find your commentary infinitely fascinating. Keep it coming!

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

kallan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:12:28 -0000

Kia ora Ken!

As with business, in thermodynamics there are many instances where the energy used to establish the differenctials is less than the energy obtained from them. It all depends on where you are in the system. A good example of thermodynamics showing this is in the use of so-called heat pumps to heat a home.

Pumping heat from one part of the system (outside) to another (inside) in some circumstances actually takes less energy than the required direct energy input. That is to say, an electric bar heater uses MORE energy than the energy required to pump the same quantity of heat from one spot to another. That's thermodynamics.

Now if you think that this is far removed from business, that would be quite falacious.

I am not a practicing network marketer - never have been - but I've studied the 'dynamics' of it. Tell you what, the efficiency of network marketing (no matter what one's point of view about it as a business) is sweet.

That's because it works like an efficient thermodynamic system, where the maximum gain (profit) is obtained throughout a series of differentials. The more diverse the market spread, the greater the gain (profit) by the exponent of that spread. When there is simply one direct input (differential) the least profit is obtained for the same amount of product shifted. That's business.

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

changeforge — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:03:15 -0000

Very interesting when apply the principle of thermodynamic to business. My reference of "always at the expenditure of energy" would more reference the energy expended to create the differentials. It would be useful energy one might hope to harness and apply it in order to create forward momentum to propel the 'changes' forward within the business.

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

kallan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:33:57 -0000

Kia ora Ken!

Change can take place in a number of ways. You said that you see it everywhere, “but always at the expenditure of energy”. I think it depends on what you mean by “expenditure of energy”.

I don’t know how much you know of thermodynamics, but in that discipline, change always involves energy. It’s a rule of thumb, but not entirely exclusive, that when energy is put into part of a system it becomes more disordered. When energy moves out of part of a system it becomes more ordered.

Within any two differing parts of a system, there is usually a differential that causes energy to flow naturally. The flow drops to near zero when most of the energy is dissipated. In that state, the system is incapable of doing any more ‘work’. That is to say no more energy can be drawn from it. The system has stagnated if you like.

To put it back to how it was requires energy, which funny enough, has to come from other parts of the same system.

The strange thing about all this is that useful energy is the energy that has the potential to flow from high to low energy. Simply the presence of high energy within a system can be quite useless when trying to get it to do something. This is the thermodynamic paradox if you like, because a differential between high and low energies is always needed for the change to be possible (so that it is useful).

It’s these other parts of the system that can benefit from differentials when useful energy is needed. To establish differentials where there was none draws energy form elsewhere in the system. In other words, you have to put energy in.

I suspect that it’s this energy that you are referring to when you say “always at the expenditure of energy”.

Ka kite

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

changeforge — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:06:37 -0000

Surely, Ken... Very profound observation (and I would expect nothing less).

I suppose what I'm driving at here is that I do see change happening organically everywhere - but always at the expenditure of energy. Change is part of nature, but not natural behavior to human beings (outside of biologically) - from my experience; it takes energy to learn new things but we continue to do so because we can survive by learning new skills...

In this specific reference, 'change is forged' - I would be mostly referencing change as the observation and/or measurement of the effect after the metamorphosis - but eluding to it being almost tangible.

In effect, I truly believe - and have witnessed - that people in business will stagnate unless forced to change (e.g. external market pressures, client need, exploration of more revenue, etc.) - and I should say 'forced to innovate' more pointedly.

Even moreso, it is interesting to me that I tend to see that change management indeed requires lots of energy. So it is this perception of things that I tend to write towards.

Does this answer your question? What are your thoughts?

Re: Just What is ChangeForge?

kallan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:13:11 -0000

Kia ora Ken!

"Change is forged in the fire of business; Technology is my anvil, and I must be the hammer."

The fire and the anvil! That's very poetic.

I have a copy of a book by J K Baxter, celebrated New Zealand poet. The book belonged to my wife's father who was a lecturer in English lit. I never met him, but I cherish his books, all of which I've read.

This particular book is entitled, "The Fire and The Anvil". It is about people, poets and poetry - the dynamics that exists between the readers and critics (the Anvil) of literature and its writers. Baxter drew those analogies from a vision of the Fire being where the creativity is generated (within the writer) and the Anvil where the script, fresh from the forge, is hammered into shape (through change). This occurs by the action of the critics on the minds of the writers as they hammer their wares into forms that are accepted ultimately by the critics. The cold result is what has been accumulated over the years as poetry.

Acceptibility seems to be a theme in the book, though I've never found the metaphor for it, if Baxter had one, that is. The literature of the writers is what really changes through this forging process.

But in your post, you speak of change as if it is a thing that is forged. I read is as 'change is forged'. But it is the forging that causes change in the first place, and it has to be done on something that undergoes change. It cannot just be change, as this would amount to change for the sake of change. There must be something I've missed. Something that has to be forged to fit certain criteria.

Could you please explain?

Ka kite