INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
Yesterday’s post was partly inspired by my reading David Chandler’s 2014 book Resilience: The Governance of Complexity. This is not only government it is also the way of all legitimate organisational change. MORE
The distinction between complexity and chaos theory can be problematic depending on who you are talking with, or what you are reading. I reserve the right to have the underlying but as yet not fully articulated concepts change over time. MORE
As our markets and technologies get more complex, we need new models to get work done. However, complex systems are not fully knowable, though they can be partially understood through interaction with them. Complex problems cannot be solved alone. complexity Wirearchy Work MORE
It is worth a quick refresh on two of the key principles of complexity (or rather cognitive complexity as we need to look at human complex systems in a very different way from those in termites nests). Diabetes Innovation Managing Complex Systems MORE
Anecdote reports that John Kotter, leadership guru , is accepting that methods like his 8-step process for leading change may not be effective in the face of complexity. Complexity, driven by global networked communications, is the main factor. MORE
The future of [human] work is perpetual beta : adapting to constant change while still getting things done. The human work of tomorrow will not be based on competencies best-suited for machines, because creative work that is continuously changing cannot be replicated by machines or code. MORE
What are the critical competencies needed to lead in our fast-changing business environment? The key challenge confronting CEOs, - and senior executives in general, - is the relentless pace of change. But, w hile speed is the major dimension of change, it’s not the only one. MORE
One of the major challenges in managing disruptive innovations is that even if you are sure that change is inevitable and you must therefore embrace the new ideas and technologies, you really don’t know what lies ahead. How will your industry change over time? MORE
Tweet In organizing for diversity and complexity , I discussed structural changes that are needed in our institutions. Kevin Wheeler has a great slide presentation on leadership in complexity that looks at what is required in a diverse and complex work world. MORE
As social learning, collaboration, and even complexity become mainstream concepts, the array of products and services around them are becoming commoditized. Making a value proposition around behaviour and culture change is therefore very difficult. complexity MORE
What if everything we have been told about Change Management over the course of the last few decades was all just … plain wrong? What if research keeps telling us, over and over again, how ’ most change efforts fail ’ ? Do we still think that organisations can change? MORE
The background: A gentleman who makes a living “reducing complexity” for IT systems keeps running into some of us on Twitter who study complexity. The ask: There is a group of complexity aficionados that criticize my use of the word “complexity.” ” In general, these are folks who are influenced by the Cynefin framework that considers complexity and complicated to be different attributes of a system. The Emergence of Complexity. MORE
A major challenge I have had in my organizational change work is getting people to understand that complicated environments are different from complex ones, and the latter are almost always the situation when people are involved. This is my 200th post on the topic of complexity. MORE
But hierarchies are rather useless to create, innovate, or change. We have known for quite a while that hierarchies are ineffective when things get complex. The only way to change a hierarchical organization is to create a new hierarchy. Complexity. Hierarchies. MORE
How can they most effectively learn the skills required in the complex domain? How do leaders start creating environments that support this transition – if we simply focus on training people, but the environment remains the same, nothing will change. Complexity MORE
“ Change becomes chaotic when employees see and hear two or more different change methods and messages “, writes Jay Deragon in managing on the edge of chaos. However, it requires more than just discarding some of our traditional ways of dealing with change. MORE
Returning yesterday from my first TedX in Cyprus I was chatting with Sonja Blignaut about some upcoming activities and differences between approaches to sense-making and complexity. In a complex system we: start journeys with a general sense of direction but without precise targets. MORE
Are engineering and management schools adequately preparing students for our fast-changing, highly complex business world? Change can be very difficult for many people, as they are being asked to move into unchartered territory. MORE
Some 10 years ago now when I first became interested in how complexity science might be used in public administration there was a body of thinking but relatively few practical examples of applications. That has changed. This blog is being posted on behalf of Thomas Townsend. MORE
It comes from the 1990’s but is still in use to describe the complex and chaotic world of business, politics, and technology. Complexity. ComplexityHave you heard the term VUCA ? MORE
Complexity is the new normal. Connected knowledge workers need more than directives; they need ongoing, real-time, constantly-changing, collaborative, support. Re-wiring for complexity. Organizations need to understand complexity instead of adding more complication. MORE
Too often, we are our jobs, and when that changes, on a large scale, society will change. The changing nature of work will have ramifications across society. Structural changes in jobs and the education needed to do work are already being felt. Complexity Democracy MORE
I started talking about the differences that complexity theory makes to design thinking some time ago - In Malmo at the XP conference as I remember it - and have now introduced that material in modified form onto day four of our accreditation programme. MORE
For the moment I want to look at some of the implications for design thinking, reinterpreted through a complexity lens; shifting from a linear process to a non-linear dynamic. Malafouris uses linear B tablets (my opening illustration) to show how material objects change human cognition in a non-linear (although he does not use that phrase manner). In a very important sense, then, from the perspective of material engagement, cognition has no location. MORE
Naturally I have done a lot more thinking since then but the fundamentals remain: you don’t scale a complex system by aggregation or imitation but be decomposition to an optimal level of granularity followed by recombination (possible exadaptive recombination). MORE
I've been using the complex domain model for some time now since I first published it. One of my main aims was to move away from a simple categorisation of methods which is the all too frequent use of Cynefin into a more nuanced and varied understanding of complexity. MORE
In complex environments, weak hierarchies and strong networks are the best organizing principle. One good example of complexity that we can try to fathom is nature itself. Each form also seems to be triggered by major societal changes in communications. complexity Wirearchy MORE
In addition, cloud can help business users become more agile and keep up with the fast pace of technological and market changes. By now, most will agree that cloud computing is a major transformational force in the world of IT. But, cloud has not the easiest concept to grasp. MORE
Let me now discuss the more recent report published earlier this year, which examined the changes in skills required of human workers over the next 10-15 years. I’ll focus my discussion on the US skill changes, as the European changes were similar. MORE
” Understanding Makes the Complex Simple. There’s a complex web of key personalities and networks that make it function,” I pointed out, “and your job sits right in the middle of them.” MORE
But, despite broadly similar views about the place of science in the country, there were large differences between the general public and scientist across a number of important issues , including genetically modified foods, vaccine safety and climate change. Climate Change. MORE
In complexity, cooperation trumps collaboration. It works in low levels of complexity. Complex environments and problems are best addressed when we organize as networks, work to continuously develop emergent practices, and cooperate to advance our aspirations. Complexity MORE
If learning professionals and learning departments don’t adapt and change, Quinn argues, they will be revealed not simply as having no clothes, but as being so out of step that they will wither and die, or be removed from the value chain. So, what are these fundamental changes? MORE
By David Gurteen If you are interested in how leadership needs to adapt to better cope with our increasingly complex world then this paper from Gervase Bushe and Robert Marshak will be of interest: The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World. Organizations are continuously changing, in both intended and unintended ways, with multiple changes occurring at various speeds. MORE
But more of our challenges are complex and cannot be solved in a standard way — inequality, refugees, populism, racism. Whenever people are involved, within a global context of climate change, the situation is likely complex. We have to learn constantly in complexity. MORE
In thinking about this question over the last few years, I started to notice that a number of subtle, non-intuitive concepts that I learned many years ago as a physics student seem to apply to the world of big data and information-based predictions in highly complex systems. The very act of observing an object will change the object being observed. Complex Systems Economic Issues Education and Talent Innovation Management and Leadership Society and Culture Technology and Strategy MORE
Complexity. If it seems to too complex for L&D to take on the “responsibility&# for enabling learning across the organisation, then bear in mind that this role will probably be assumed by others, e.g. Bus Ops, IT or Internal Communications departments as their own interests widen. MORE
8) So what have I learned that will help us change our own experience of work? That knowledge is becoming more abstract, conceptual, distributed and complex. 9) We know what social and thinking skills are needed for complex contexts – we know how to hone these skills through practice. MORE
A good conversation in Moscow this morning with David Anderson around and about the issue of managing a complex system and as is the way with discussion a half formed idea or two coalesced. Then we have three basic questions: (i) what can I change? (ii) So how to make those changes? MORE
This changes everything. Complexity has been on my mind a lot lately. What’s left is complexity: the unpredictable, volatile, surprise-time, non-linear, quantum, interconnected challenges of WTF. Will complex work become the norm by 2020? Complexity Just Jay MORE
The pioneering work of Prigogine and others which gives us complexity theory happens in the middle of that century. It was a characteristic of that period of development that the complexity of system would be resolved by engineering design, often bottom up, or definition of specific outcomes. MORE
It comes down to the fact that what we know and do inside our organizations is insufficient to address external complexity or to be innovative. Climate change and scarcity of resources is a mounting problem. Communities complexity MORE
Thinking of complex adaptive systems as merely complicated entities that can be regulated like machines can lead to disaster, as Niall Ferguson shows in his recent book. Human systems are complex. He also elaborates on 16 attributes of effective ways to address complex problems. MORE
The cartoon speaks for itself and has wider application than leadership, it can be used to look at the wider issue of change and the problems that have been created by the dominance of an engineering, cybernetics induced over the last few decades. MORE
Harold Jarche
JANUARY 21, 2019
But more of our challenges are complex and cannot be solved in a standard way — inequality, refugees, populism, racism. Whenever people are involved, within a global context of climate change, the situation is likely complex. We have to learn constantly in complexity.
Harold Jarche
NOVEMBER 28, 2018
In complexity, cooperation trumps collaboration. It works in low levels of complexity. Complex environments and problems are best addressed when we organize as networks, work to continuously develop emergent practices, and cooperate to advance our aspirations. Complexity
Dave Snowden
JUNE 21, 2017
The pioneering work of Prigogine and others which gives us complexity theory happens in the middle of that century. It was a characteristic of that period of development that the complexity of system would be resolved by engineering design, often bottom up, or definition of specific outcomes.
Dave Snowden
OCTOBER 1, 2017
Naturally I have done a lot more thinking since then but the fundamentals remain: you don’t scale a complex system by aggregation or imitation but be decomposition to an optimal level of granularity followed by recombination (possible exadaptive recombination).
Dave Snowden
OCTOBER 30, 2016
The cartoon speaks for itself and has wider application than leadership, it can be used to look at the wider issue of change and the problems that have been created by the dominance of an engineering, cybernetics induced over the last few decades.
Harold Jarche
SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
A major challenge I have had in my organizational change work is getting people to understand that complicated environments are different from complex ones, and the latter are almost always the situation when people are involved. This is my 200th post on the topic of complexity.
Harold Jarche
JANUARY 8, 2014
Thinking of complex adaptive systems as merely complicated entities that can be regulated like machines can lead to disaster, as Niall Ferguson shows in his recent book. Human systems are complex. He also elaborates on 16 attributes of effective ways to address complex problems.
Harold Jarche
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
How can they most effectively learn the skills required in the complex domain? How do leaders start creating environments that support this transition – if we simply focus on training people, but the environment remains the same, nothing will change. Complexity
Dave Snowden
DECEMBER 14, 2014
The distinction between complexity and chaos theory can be problematic depending on who you are talking with, or what you are reading. I reserve the right to have the underlying but as yet not fully articulated concepts change over time.
Harold Jarche
OCTOBER 3, 2018
The future of [human] work is perpetual beta : adapting to constant change while still getting things done. The human work of tomorrow will not be based on competencies best-suited for machines, because creative work that is continuously changing cannot be replicated by machines or code.
Dave Snowden
OCTOBER 5, 2014
A good conversation in Moscow this morning with David Anderson around and about the issue of managing a complex system and as is the way with discussion a half formed idea or two coalesced. Then we have three basic questions: (i) what can I change? (ii) So how to make those changes?
Dave Snowden
APRIL 16, 2013
I've been using the complex domain model for some time now since I first published it. One of my main aims was to move away from a simple categorisation of methods which is the all too frequent use of Cynefin into a more nuanced and varied understanding of complexity.
Dave Snowden
AUGUST 31, 2014
Some 10 years ago now when I first became interested in how complexity science might be used in public administration there was a body of thinking but relatively few practical examples of applications. That has changed. This blog is being posted on behalf of Thomas Townsend.
Harold Jarche
APRIL 27, 2015
Too often, we are our jobs, and when that changes, on a large scale, society will change. The changing nature of work will have ramifications across society. Structural changes in jobs and the education needed to do work are already being felt. Complexity Democracy
Harold Jarche
FEBRUARY 8, 2017
It comes from the 1990’s but is still in use to describe the complex and chaotic world of business, politics, and technology. Complexity. ComplexityHave you heard the term VUCA ?
Harold Jarche
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
Anecdote reports that John Kotter, leadership guru , is accepting that methods like his 8-step process for leading change may not be effective in the face of complexity. Complexity, driven by global networked communications, is the main factor.
Harold Jarche
MAY 28, 2012
In complex environments, weak hierarchies and strong networks are the best organizing principle. One good example of complexity that we can try to fathom is nature itself. Each form also seems to be triggered by major societal changes in communications. complexity Wirearchy
Harold Jarche
JANUARY 8, 2010
Complexity. If it seems to too complex for L&D to take on the “responsibility&# for enabling learning across the organisation, then bear in mind that this role will probably be assumed by others, e.g. Bus Ops, IT or Internal Communications departments as their own interests widen.
Harold Jarche
JANUARY 24, 2013
As our markets and technologies get more complex, we need new models to get work done. However, complex systems are not fully knowable, though they can be partially understood through interaction with them. Complex problems cannot be solved alone. complexity Wirearchy Work
Dave Snowden
OCTOBER 3, 2013
I started talking about the differences that complexity theory makes to design thinking some time ago - In Malmo at the XP conference as I remember it - and have now introduced that material in modified form onto day four of our accreditation programme.
Harold Jarche
MARCH 28, 2013
As social learning, collaboration, and even complexity become mainstream concepts, the array of products and services around them are becoming commoditized. Making a value proposition around behaviour and culture change is therefore very difficult. complexity
Martijn Linssen
DECEMBER 9, 2013
The background: A gentleman who makes a living “reducing complexity” for IT systems keeps running into some of us on Twitter who study complexity. The ask: There is a group of complexity aficionados that criticize my use of the word “complexity.” ” In general, these are folks who are influenced by the Cynefin framework that considers complexity and complicated to be different attributes of a system. The Emergence of Complexity.
Charles Jennings
JULY 7, 2014
If learning professionals and learning departments don’t adapt and change, Quinn argues, they will be revealed not simply as having no clothes, but as being so out of step that they will wither and die, or be removed from the value chain. So, what are these fundamental changes?
Harold Jarche
MAY 25, 2014
8) So what have I learned that will help us change our own experience of work? That knowledge is becoming more abstract, conceptual, distributed and complex. 9) We know what social and thinking skills are needed for complex contexts – we know how to hone these skills through practice.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
JUNE 25, 2014
In addition, cloud can help business users become more agile and keep up with the fast pace of technological and market changes. By now, most will agree that cloud computing is a major transformational force in the world of IT. But, cloud has not the easiest concept to grasp.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
FEBRUARY 2, 2016
What are the critical competencies needed to lead in our fast-changing business environment? The key challenge confronting CEOs, - and senior executives in general, - is the relentless pace of change. But, w hile speed is the major dimension of change, it’s not the only one.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
OCTOBER 8, 2018
Let me now discuss the more recent report published earlier this year, which examined the changes in skills required of human workers over the next 10-15 years. I’ll focus my discussion on the US skill changes, as the European changes were similar.
Harold Jarche
JULY 24, 2014
But hierarchies are rather useless to create, innovate, or change. We have known for quite a while that hierarchies are ineffective when things get complex. The only way to change a hierarchical organization is to create a new hierarchy. Complexity. Hierarchies.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
FEBRUARY 6, 2013
One of the major challenges in managing disruptive innovations is that even if you are sure that change is inevitable and you must therefore embrace the new ideas and technologies, you really don’t know what lies ahead. How will your industry change over time?
Harold Jarche
JUNE 30, 2017
” Understanding Makes the Complex Simple. There’s a complex web of key personalities and networks that make it function,” I pointed out, “and your job sits right in the middle of them.”
Jay Cross
MARCH 18, 2013
This changes everything. Complexity has been on my mind a lot lately. What’s left is complexity: the unpredictable, volatile, surprise-time, non-linear, quantum, interconnected challenges of WTF. Will complex work become the norm by 2020? Complexity Just Jay
Harold Jarche
MAY 8, 2014
Complexity is the new normal. Connected knowledge workers need more than directives; they need ongoing, real-time, constantly-changing, collaborative, support. Re-wiring for complexity. Organizations need to understand complexity instead of adding more complication.
David Gurteen
NOVEMBER 27, 2015
By David Gurteen If you are interested in how leadership needs to adapt to better cope with our increasingly complex world then this paper from Gervase Bushe and Robert Marshak will be of interest: The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World. Organizations are continuously changing, in both intended and unintended ways, with multiple changes occurring at various speeds.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
MARCH 12, 2018
But, despite broadly similar views about the place of science in the country, there were large differences between the general public and scientist across a number of important issues , including genetically modified foods, vaccine safety and climate change. Climate Change.
Harold Jarche
AUGUST 6, 2012
“ Change becomes chaotic when employees see and hear two or more different change methods and messages “, writes Jay Deragon in managing on the edge of chaos. However, it requires more than just discarding some of our traditional ways of dealing with change.
Luis Suarez
NOVEMBER 28, 2016
What if everything we have been told about Change Management over the course of the last few decades was all just … plain wrong? What if research keeps telling us, over and over again, how ’ most change efforts fail ’ ? Do we still think that organisations can change?
Dave Snowden
NOVEMBER 29, 2013
It is worth a quick refresh on two of the key principles of complexity (or rather cognitive complexity as we need to look at human complex systems in a very different way from those in termites nests). Diabetes Innovation Managing Complex Systems
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
DECEMBER 7, 2012
In thinking about this question over the last few years, I started to notice that a number of subtle, non-intuitive concepts that I learned many years ago as a physics student seem to apply to the world of big data and information-based predictions in highly complex systems. The very act of observing an object will change the object being observed. Complex Systems Economic Issues Education and Talent Innovation Management and Leadership Society and Culture Technology and Strategy
Harold Jarche
SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
It comes down to the fact that what we know and do inside our organizations is insufficient to address external complexity or to be innovative. Climate change and scarcity of resources is a mounting problem. Communities complexity
Harold Jarche
OCTOBER 9, 2011
Tweet In organizing for diversity and complexity , I discussed structural changes that are needed in our institutions. Kevin Wheeler has a great slide presentation on leadership in complexity that looks at what is required in a diverse and complex work world.
Dave Snowden
OCTOBER 4, 2013
For the moment I want to look at some of the implications for design thinking, reinterpreted through a complexity lens; shifting from a linear process to a non-linear dynamic. Malafouris uses linear B tablets (my opening illustration) to show how material objects change human cognition in a non-linear (although he does not use that phrase manner). In a very important sense, then, from the perspective of material engagement, cognition has no location.
Dave Snowden
DECEMBER 15, 2014
Yesterday’s post was partly inspired by my reading David Chandler’s 2014 book Resilience: The Governance of Complexity. This is not only government it is also the way of all legitimate organisational change.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
DECEMBER 23, 2014
Are engineering and management schools adequately preparing students for our fast-changing, highly complex business world? Change can be very difficult for many people, as they are being asked to move into unchartered territory.
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