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How To Flock In 3 Easy Steps

ThisMuchWeKnow

Here is a short video that illustrates the amazingness of flocking – the ability of birds (and other animals) to work together in a network with only very limited, local sets of rules. Graphic designer Craig Reynolds developed this computer modeling called a Boids model many years ago; wherein randomly moving objects are given three simple rules of engagement in the network: Collision avoidance – cohesion Velocity matching – alignment Flock centering – separation and, lo! a flock is formed in real time, with absurd coordination and cooperation, yet without any central controls. This, friends, is how we need to model … Continue reading How To Flock In 3 Easy Steps

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Flocking + Schooling

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Complex systems often follow simple rules. Flocking and schooling are examples in nature of vast, networked information systems. It is network theory been played out in real time in the real world, in a way that organizations can only begin to imagine happening. Don Tapscott has a great video on crow murmurations that speaks to this phenomenon. I wrote about it here. In this behaviour and communication system, there is no leader or global information; but sets of local rules and interaction. The nodes, and their interconnectivity, drive the behaviour of the network. Knowing that, in complexity, there is no grand scheme … Continue reading Flocking + Schooling

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On Fire: The Tom Peters School Of Schooling

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On fire! I have been closely following @tom_peters recently, and he is on fire. Super direct, brusque, angry, and optimistic. My favourite twitter operative at the moment. Example rant: Why the F do you need to “scale” something? Let’s start by makin’ the damn thing so great it makes you tingle? — Tom Peters (@tom_peters) January 30, 2014 Tweet after tweet after tweet. Visceral, schooling newbies hither and thither. It is an education to read. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading On Fire: The Tom Peters School Of Schooling

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5 Thinkers To Follow

ThisMuchWeKnow

Here are five great sages to read, follow, engage with around forces at play in our workplaces and society. They have driven so much of my rich learning over the last few years. Harold Jarche The clearest, most direct writer on modern day learning, taking control of our professional lives, emergent network thinking. I am lucky enough to share networks with Harold in the last year, but for several years beforehand I absorbed as much as I could from a distance. Definitely a thought leader in the practitioner world. John Hagel Deep thinking, long-term understanding of where society (especially work) … Continue reading 5 Thinkers To Follow

Social Business, The Curious Will Inherit The World2 Comments

A Network Is An Idea Factory

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I hope you will have already seen Jason Silva’s Moments of Awe videos. Just delicious. In a recent interview, he explained his kaleidoscopic network approach to his work, “…when I see sentences and words, I see a network of connections. The manic geometry of associational thinking is probably the best description how my brain works. It is all networks. Ideas are networks.” It brought to mind an association from 50 years ago by the neuropsychologist, Roger Sperry (via Brain Pickings) of the analogy between neurons and ideas: “Ideas cause ideas and help evolve new ideas. They interact with each other … Continue reading A Network Is An Idea Factory

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of Work1 Comment

I Must (Re)Learn to TRUST

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In my recent reading about networks and the future of work, I have seen the word ‘trust’ flash like a lighthouse. Here are just a few quotes I have recently squirreled away. Seth Godin says: “The connection economy isn’t based on steel or rails or buildings. It’s built on trust and hope and passion.” Stowe Boyd talks of the need for ‘swift trust’ in the future of work. Harold Jarche, meanwhile, believes “Connected leadership starts by organizing to embrace networks, manage complexity, and build trust.“ Nilofer Merchant, in a great Wired article, has this to add: “Relationships are to the social … Continue reading I Must (Re)Learn to TRUST

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The Sophisticated Answer To The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Tit For Tat

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In my undergraduate studies I was paid to participate in game theory sessions within the economics faculty. The (flawed) assumption of game theory (and a lot of economics) is that individuals are rational. Anyway, The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a simple modeling tool to understand decisions, and to understand complex systems (definition: “large networks of simple interacting elements which, following simple rules, produce emergent, collective, complex behavior.”) If you need the rules of the ‘game’ – here you go. It turns out that the best approach to this ‘game’ is surprisingly simple. Tit for tat wins out every time. One of … Continue reading The Sophisticated Answer To The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Tit For Tat

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Embracing Complexity: Individuals

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Nilofer Merchant (in conversation with Carol Dweck) wants to challenge smart and talented leaders, those ‘in the know.’ Here are a few choice quotes: “[W]hat if you don’t [know]”? What changes? The things you know today are not enough. Facts change, new challenges arise, and so you can never think, “I know this” and call it done. The growth mindset then is about your ability to adapt to a world of changing circumstances. You have to be wedded to a definition of success that says we will figure it out, and keep figuring it out.” An embrace of complexity for leaders, … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Individuals

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Embracing Complexity: Enterprise Social Networks

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I participated last year as an interviewee in a MSc dissertation on social information theory, and a quote from another participant struck a chord with me. The company asked in an employee survey, “Do you use the Enterprise Social Network platform?” and compared the answers of all questions of the people that answered “Yes” with the answers of those that said “No”. The “Yes” scores were roughly 10% higher in questions like “my ideas are listened to”, “I can communicate across business lines”, “I understand the strategy.” These people have sought active engagement with their workplace, the nuance and disagreements, the … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Enterprise Social Networks

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Embracing Complexity: Office Space

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Just as in cities, offices that are complex, alive, interactive are the ones where things happen. This was proven by Thomas Allen. The Allen Curve posits that “interactions between different workers declined exponentially depending on the distance between their offices.” Indeed, “researchers on different floors almost never had anything to do with each other. This effect starts to take place when people are 50 metres or more apart.” Newer office design encourages interaction. Steve Jobs famously (via his biography) decreed that his (Apple, Pixar, NeXT etc.) offices limit the number of toilet blocks and have them in a central place that … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Office Space

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Embracing Complexity: Cities

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I am digging complexity, and see it EVERYWHERE! Let’s start at a macro level, with cities. “Cities are like a star” says Luis Bettencourt, in a video on the SFI Introduction to Complexity MOOC. “The reactor is getting hotter…More mass – reactions at the centre are faster; the start is hotter, everything is faster.” The complex social system cavorts with complexity and trembles on the edge of chaos. Innovation, patents, GDP (as well as crime) all increase at logarithmic scale with city size / density. Visiting a city like New York, or going back home to London, I feel very … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Cities

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A Simple Person Embracing Complexity

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So I have been reorienting myself around the idea of complexity. By nature, I consider myself a simple soul – simple design, food, routines, lifestyle. Simple can be subtle and sophisticated, but generally not complex. Conversely, I like change, and change tends not to be simple or linear. I had seen my ability as being able to simplify the complexity and disturbance of change. To subvert and avoid. I had it wrong. “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity” So said Oliver Wendell Holmes. Complexity is … Continue reading A Simple Person Embracing Complexity