The Organization as a Complex Adaptive System

Following is an image of the workings of a Complex Adaptive System – developed for a presentation about applying Complexity Science to Knowledge Management at the KMWorld 2011 Conference last week in Washington DC.

The basics:

• When looking through the lens of Complexity Science, a company (organization) can be viewed as a Complex Adaptive System (just like an ecosystem).
• It is made up of a diverse set of agents that interact with each other (people, budget, tools, etc.).
• These agents interact within existing boundaries (geography, teams, business units, processes, etc.).
• Patterns emerge from these interactions.
• The agents respond to feedback from the emergent patterns and continually adapt to the feedback.

 

 

 

 

Click to view the prezi presentation from the conference presentation.

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