|
iii Complexity. It is a concept that is imposing in its very name. In fact, even the idea of explaining complexity (making complexity simple) is, at its heart, paradoxical.
iii Edgeware is not a book to be read from beginning to end... Pick a page at random. It doesn't matter - you will find your way.
iii Complexity may require that you disassemble some of your old mental models about organizations and the world around you. Old beliefs about control and management, for example, look very different when viewed through the lens of complexity. Resist the temptation to dismiss the difficult lessons of complexity; it's good to be somewhat unsettled.
iv This is not a program that you roll out in organizations, with banners and coffee mugs. It's a new way of thinking and seeing the world... Edgeware is a family of tools.
p.4 The dominant metaphor in Newtonian science is the machine... The clocks or machines can be explained using reductionism - by understanding each part separately... The Newtonian perspective assumes that all can be explained by the careful examination of the parts. Yet that does not work for many aspects of human behavior.
p.5 Complexity science is not a single theory. It is the study of complex adaptive systems - the patterns of relationships within them, how they are sustained, how they self-organize and how outcomes emerge... Complexity science is highly interdisciplinary
p.7 Complexity science describes how systems actually behave rather than how they should behave.
p.8 What is a complex adaptive system? Each word is significant. "Complex" implies diversity - a great number of connections between a wide variety of elements. "Adaptive" suggests the capacity to alter or change - the ability to learn from experience. A "system" is a set of connected or interdependent things. The "things" in a CAS are interdependent agents.
p.9 For a CAS to be sustainable, there must be diversity, which is a source of information or novelty. As John Holland argues, the diversity of a CAS is the result of progressive adaptations. Diversity that is the result of adaptation also becomes the source of future adaptations. A decrease in diversity reduces the potential for future adaptations... Diversity is seen as a key to innovation and long-term viability.
p.10 Distributed control means that the outcomes of a complex adaptive system emerge from a process of self-organization rather than being designed and controlled externally or by a centralized body. The emergence is the result of the patterns of interrelationships among the agents. Emergence suggests unpredictability - an inability to state precisely how a system will evolve.
p.11 The coevolution of a CAS and its environment is difficult to map because it is nonlinear.
p.13 Complexity science, with its focus on emergence, self-organization, interdependencies, unpredictability and nonlinearity provides a useful alternative to the machine metaphor.
p.17 Complex adaptive systems have the capacity to adapt and evolve without an external designer. They self-organize without either external or centralized control.
p.23 The Nine Principles:
- View your system through the lens of complexity
- Build a good-enough vision
- When life is far from certain, lead with clockware and swarmware in tandem
- Tune your place to the edge
- Uncover and work with paradox and tension
- Go for multiple actions at the fringes, let direction arise
- Listen to the shadow system
- Grow complex systems by chunking
- Mix cooperation with competition
p.26 Since the behavior of a CAS emerges from the interaction among the agents, and since the detailed behavior of the system is fundamentally unpredictable, it does little good to spend all the time that most organizations spend in detailed planning... Complexity science suggests that we would be better off with minimum specifications and general senses of direction, and then allow appropriate autonomy for individuals to self-organize and adapt as time goes by.
p.26 "The principle of min specs [minimum specifications] suggests that managers should define no more than is absolutely necessary to launch a particular incentive or activity on its way. They have to avoid the role of 'grand designer' in favor of one that focuses on facilitation, orchestration and boundary management, creating 'enabling conditions' that allow a system to find its own form." -Morgan
p.27 The key learning from the simulations is that in the case of a CAS, minimum specifications and purposeful variation are the way to go.
This principle would suggest, for example, that intricate strategic plans be replaced by simple documents that describe the general direction the organization is pursuing and a few basic principles for how the organization should get there. The rest is left to the flexibility, adaptability and creativity of the system as the context continually changes.
p.28 "Managers therefore cannot form a vision of some future state toward which the business can be moved; the futures open to the system are too many, and the links between a future and the actions leading to it are too obscure. Chaotic dynamics lead us to see strategy as a direction into the future that emerges from what managers do. In chaotic conditions, strategy cannot be driven by pure intentions. Instead, it represents the unintentional creation of order out of chaos." -Stacey
p.29 "Clockware" is a term coined by Kevin Kelley, that describes the management processes we all know that involve operating the core production processes of the organization in a manner that is rational, planned, standardized, repeatable, controlled and measured.
p.29 In contrast, Kelley's term "swarmware" refers to management processes that explore new possibilities through experimentation, trials, autonomy, freedom, intuition and working at the edge of knowledge and experience. Good-enough vision, minimum specifications and metaphor are examples of swarmware that we have already seen. The idea is to say just enough to paint a picture or describe the absolute boundaries, and then let the people in the CAS become active in trying whatever they think might work.
p.29 In an informed approach to complexity, it is not a question of saying that one is good and the other is bad. The issue is about finding an appropriate mix for a given situation... Where the world is certain and there is a high level of agreement... clockware is appropriate... However, where the world is far from certain and agreement... swarmware is needed with its adaptability, openness to new learning and flexibility.
p.35 You don't have to be "sure" before you proceed with anything. As we have already noted, in a CAS it does little good to plan all the details. You can never know exactly what will happen until you do it. So, allowing the flexibility of multiple approaches is a very reasonable thing to do... when we do find ourselves in situations far from certainty... quit trying to analyze it to certainty. Try several small experiments, reflect carefully on what happens and gradually shift time and attention toward those things that seem to be working the best
p.39 Allow complex systems to emerge out of the links among simple systems that work well and are capable of operating independently.
p.39 "interesting, beguilingly complex behavior can emerge from collections of extremely simple components." -Waldrop
p.40 Continual reflection and learning are key in building complex systems. You cannot reflect on anything until you do something. So start small, but do start.
p.58 the natural world... realms of the world... Most are complex networks of interacting components that produce rich patterns that cannot be predicted from even thee most detailed information about the components.
p.65 To be open means to allow things to unfold. Allow it to be.
p.82 complexity theory... the theory says that interesting properties can emerge from a complex system when the components of the system interact in simple but rich ways.... this means that emergence happens when there is a lot of interaction between individuals who mutually affect one another.
p.91 "In the end, complexity theory makes you ask what projects make sense in the world you live and work in," says Jim Dwyer, vice president of Medical Affairs, Memorial Hospital of Burlington County. "As an administrator, I've always gone into planning sessions with a clear idea of what the outcome should be. But since I've been studying complexity, I'm open to more ideas. I don't need to have all the answers, so I'm willing to draw on the experience of anyone who can help ensure the best results."
p.98 the central tenets of complexity management: that systems in which people are far from certainty and agreement can be breeding grounds for creativity and innovation; that order can spontaneously emerge from complex adaptive systems if you nurture it, and don't try to control it; that complexity principles can guide us in creating a new future, even when we don't have a clear vision of what that future should be.
p.98 "We immediately wrote down our min specs," said [Tom] Irons, referring to the principle of minimum specification, which indicates that a few simple rules are sufficient for producing amazingly diverse and complex self-organizing behaviors in a system.
"Then we began thinking about our 15 percent," said Irons, referring to another complexity principle that suggests we have the ability to influence only 15 percent of what goes on in our system, and the rest is left up to forces beyond our control. Therefore, by finding and leveraging that critical 15 percent, leaders may produce remarkable, systemwide change... "We also realized that we were creating a new strange attractor." (That is, a new model around which activity could organize.) "The old attractors - the existing systems of structure, governance, practice reengineering and so on - weren't capable of achieving the goals of improving the health status of its people.
p.99 [Tom Irons] "...we discovered we had to let the new system emerge. We couldn't force it. We could only nurture and facilitate it."
p.99 [Tom Irons] "...At its core, a complexity approach is about letting go of control to let a structure self-organize. It's the letting go that's frightening."
p.100 If you build something good, it never stops changing, growing and evolving.
p.106 It's best to just do a complexity approach and then explain it to people after it works
p.106 The principles (minimum specs) create the environment (container) for emergence.
p.107 once the information begins flowing in this huge CAS, it will self-organize and allow us to see the emerging opportunities.
p.108 The principles behind our... effort lead us to take an emergent and opportunistic approach to planning, rather than a more traditional goals-and-strategies approach... we want... to become aware of opportunities where conditions are ripe for natural success in the application of knowledge that we already possess. In such a complex adaptive system, we can plan to build sources of information upon which we can act, but we cannot say a priori where that information might eventually lead us to act.
p.131 You should also understand that an aide is an extension of yourself and your coworkers. You, the others and the aide itself are all elements of a complex adaptive system
p.144 Metaphor is a tool of language in which one thing is said to be something else (or to be like something else)... when applied to a CAS... they ignore interaction effects among the agents
p.151 Wicked questions do not have obvious answers.
p.155 generative relationships... In this process, strategy and direction (which cannot be foreseen) emerge through ongoing interactions inside and outside the firm.
p.162 in the case of a CAS, minimum specification and purposeful variation are the way to go.
p.162 A practical approach to establishing minimum specifications would be to begin with "good enough vision" of the desired outcome... Now step back from the list and challenge each proposed rule by asking, "Can we imagine a situation where we get our desired outcome even though this rule is violated?" If you can, eliminate the rule. Also cross off rules that are simply minor variations of other rules... Think of each rule as unnecessarily constraining creativity. If you can imagine situations in which you still get the desired outcome even if that rule is violated, throw it out, it is not a minimum spec. Continue this process until you have only a few rules left.
|
