> The approach that I take to complexity (with Howard Sherman and
> a few others) is that it refers to a way of understanding or making
> sense of the world - not to the world itself. That is, it is a way
> of speaking about the relationship of the world and human
> intelligence or language.
Thanks for your reply Michael. Here follows an abstract, which has helped
me clear my head a little - I hope it helps others.
By (a) definition, to be aware of complexity is to be subject to at least
one strange attractors (SA). Thus one gains an understanding of one's
surroundings in that context at least - A different slant on Systems
thinking because the system, as well as the individual is doing the
'thinking', as long as the paradigm remains viable.
If we think of a successful organisation in terms of complexity, where the
organisation operates at its maximum capacity (as we understand it), it
will exhibit the behaviour of that 'thinking', because it is subject to
it.
eg IBM operated at maximum capacity for many years, until it overloaded
the SA because it had started to compete with itself. Then along comes the
Win - Win paradigm, and IBM fires again, but under the influence of a
completely different SA.
Without being overly cynical, the human race is behaving somewhat like a
dandelion - sending little spores off into space with the vague hope of
meeting and/or mating with another like species. This has been one of our
major industrial achievements, yet appears to exhibit a low level of
complexity - effective but unintelligent.
It seems that we must accept that a higher level exists, and always will.
The Indian case study indicated that community optimisation exists, but we
are yet to master it. Until we do, our Systems Thinking is based on an
isolationist paradigm, which is counter to what we aim to achive - a LO.
Kind regards
Bill R
--Bill Richardson, Bain & Co, Sydney, Aust. (Usual disclaimers apply) //\\ Phone (02) 258-1512, (0414) 232-987 // bill@bain.oz.au || You will never be the same, when your eyes meet mine - Radio Birdman. **
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>