Virtuous Growth Cycle LO10636

Benjamin Compton (bcompton@geocities.com)
Mon, 21 Oct 1996 19:14:38 -0700

Replying to LO10582 --

Julian Macnamara wrote:

> Progress is only possible because the environment, which reflects the
> conditions influencing development or growth, is unpredictable. This
> unpredictability is caused by the action of positive and negative feedback
> operating on a complex adaptive system. As Chris Langton of the Santa Fe
> Institute has shown, one of the interesting properties of a cellular
> automaton, which is a special type of complex adaptive system, is that
> there is a zone right at the edge of chaos where there is a balance
> between order (negative feedback) and disorder (unconstrained positive
> feedback) which produces coherent and emergent structures. (In dynamical
> systems terms this is equal to "order" =>"complexity"=>"chaos"). This
> depends on an intensity factor that reflects an artificial organisation's
> ability to adapt to its environment. Brian Arthus, also of the Santa Fe
> Institute also has some very interesting things to say about the effects
> of positive feedback in the form of the law of increasing returns in the
> economy. Microsoft (also featured in some recent LO posts) make very
> effective use of the law of increasing returns.

Julian, I like what you're saying here. The environment provides "input"
which is a signal that change or adaptation is needed. An important
question, in my mind, is what prevents a person or a community from
receiving that input?

Experience has taught me that an organization's philosophy (or
philosophies) act as a filter, allowing only _some_ of the available
environmental input to be received. Other input is automatically rejected.

By philosophy I simply mean a group of stated assumptions that attempt to
explain why a person should experience a certain "result," or why a
company should be successful. An organization's philosophy is perhaps its
most prominent -- and important -- mental model!

-- 

Ben Compton The Accidental Learning Group Work: (801) 222-6178 Improving Business through Science and Art bcompton@geocities.com http://www.e-ad.com/ben/BEN.HTM

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>