Page 12 - The Complexity Perspective 20 02 18

their take on complexity constructs can be characterized as an attempt
to extract the ‘active ingredient’ to bolt on to a power structure. Some
examples:

● Emergence: the “active ingredient” is the creative value of
spontaneity

● Nonlinearity: the “active ingredient” is the learning value of
feedback

● Self-organization: the “active ingredient” is the survival value
of rapid adaptation & flexibility

● Networks: the “active ingredient” includes the
communications value of virality

Objectives

This Guide has four objectives:

1. To introduce and explain the major constructs of the Complexity
Perspective in business terms

2. To show how those constructs interact in the context creating a
state of permanent (and it appears accelerating) dynamism

3. To emphasize the key role of adaptation to context that

determines most of an organizations strategy as well as reducing
its degrees of strategic freedom

4. To show how the ‘active ingredient’ at the heart of some

complexity constructs are being used inside systems as they
struggle to adapt.

So let’s get started and the best place to start is with the idea of
Emergence.

12
©Business Games Works 2018 (Version 1)