Page 54 - Chapter One

22 The Management Shift

An increasingly popular interdisciplinary approach is complexity science,
which is radically changing perceptions on business and management. It
is based on the insight that organizations, like many other living organ-
isms, behave like complex adaptive systems (CAS). Complex adaptive sys-
tems are systems comprising individual agents that act in unpredictable
ways. The agents can change and share mental models, control is dispersed

throughout the non- linear interaction among them, and from such an inter-
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action, the new behavior emerges. Novelty and non- linearity cause high
unpredictability of system behavior, and it is apparent that we could never
predict in detail the behavior of a human system, but generally true state-
ments about CAS behavior can be made. The sets of circumstances that
cause creative emergence are often known as “the edge of chaos”. In such
circumstances there is not enough agreement, rigidity and certainty to
make the next decision easily but there is not too much disagreement or
uncertainly that would cause complete chaos. Order emerges out of the
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edge of chaos.
Complexity theory is an overarching framework that explains the world,
the living systems, organizations as social systems, as well as biological
and ecological systems. It is focused on understanding life, and this is
changing our perceptions about organizations, management and social

change. Complexity science- based management provides an opportunity
for people to work together as teams in a different, more creative,
decentralized, effective and adaptive manner, leading to more innovation
and business success, using the following guidelines: 95

When agents interact and mutually affect each other in a system, this is
the source of emergence
Agents’ behaviors in a system are governed by a few simple rules
Small changes can lead to large effects
Emergence is certain, but there is no certainty as to what it will be
The greater the diversity of agents in a system, the richer the emergent
patterns.

Management is about changing structure, knowledge, skills and behav-
ior according to current goals and accepting that change will happen