The following material may not appear in the following order and is not to be considered finished work in any way. It does present essentially all of the ideas that will be contained in the book which is being created under the working title above. Besides enriching and developing the material contained herein, the order of chapters may be changed and the material order may change wholesale as development proceeds. The material is to be taken as a whole rather than as a logical or final presentation.

This book presents fundamental elements of complexity as they apply to strategy, organizational design and management practices. It builds from a basic understanding of complexity and develops the implications of that for the concerns of those responsible for the performance of the whole corporation.

1a Introduction

There are many people and institutions working on the development of the emerging sciences of complexity. Few of these are working directly on the application of this field to corporate concerns. But the field has much to contribute both to production and to the organization itself. This work builds on what those developers are doing based on my interpretation of public presentations of these researchers. The following material provides the building blocks for a theory of organization that will affect strategy as well as organizational design and production problems as well as corporate development of intelligence and knowledge. This work is written for executives and managers of all institutions - public or private - who are are intent on increasing the productive effect of human cooperative activity.

1. The Challenge of Ever Increasing Complexity

Reveals the evolution of the world as a relevant background and useful metaphor for understanding economies, industries and corporations. Shows how the concepts of complexity allow us to understand those phenomena - competition, technology, learning and knowledge creation - that are otherwise too complicated to be dealt with effectively.

2. The Language of Organization

Shows how the current language and metaphors of business hide the things that need to be questioned and rethought and fail to allow us to consider those things in new ways. Explores the use of the language and metaphors of complexity and intelligence for opening up new possibilities. Provides indicators of areas which are constrained by management and cultural language practices. (appendix[a] of questions to ask as a practical guide to this area.)

3. The Building Blocks of Innovation

Explores the nature of innovation as nature has accomplished it. Applies the principles of sex and reproduction to innovation. Develops the principles of recombining elements as the source of new strategies, new products and exploring possibilities. Presents the use of "genetic algorithms" as computer based simulations which solve problems of invention, scheduling and design.

4. Developing Corporate Knowledge

Relates the challenges of technological development, rapid change and strategic positioning to the history and future of corporate concerns. The problems of understanding the relationship of knowledge development to strategy and of both to organizational design.

5. Searching Spaces of Possibility

What is the nature of strategy when the space of possibility is too large to search with conventional means? How can you be sure that you are not just the best on a local peak which is lower than others and may be shrinking? Explores the implications of organising for exploration and the design principles for continued improvement no matter what your current competitive standing.

6. Generating Creative Solutions

Explores the nature of emergence in continued evolutionary development of solutions to challenges. Shows how creative solutions are emergent rather than engineered and how design can be modelled on evolution. Approaches to understanding the phenomena of developmental strategies.

7. Information, Learning and Intelligence

Living systems generate information rather than receive it and the implications of this for human beings and organizations is profound. Our models of learning, knowledge and information exchange are radically changed by this perspective and the implications for organizational design and management practices are equally profound. (appendix [b] details the linguistic activities of management in producing and coordinating action)

8. Exploring the Evolution of Competing Strategies

Shows how cooperation is a key element in successful competition. By becoming more integrated and more complex, we become more adaptable and increase our ability to survive. The nature of the future and how to develop strategies that succeed with other strategies is revealed.

9. Organizational Learning

Locates organizational learning in the practices and design of communities of knowledge. Explores the relationship of kinds of learning, generation of knowledge and the ability for organizations to learn beyond the mere accumulation of individual learning.

10. Organizational Intelligence Applied to Solving Complex Problems

All of the important problems of organizations are too complex to be understood or resolved by single individuals or specialist teams. The nature of complex problems is explored as specifically encountered by management and a process for reducing them to a manageable scale of complexity is suggested. The relationship of organizational intelligence to complex problems is explored and a solution offerred. (Appendix [c] shows the basic steps of assembling a team, reducing complexity to manageable dimensions and developing responses which result in effective action.)

11. Designing for Intelligence

Presents a way to introduce complexity to an organization and begin to design from these principles. Provides a management language for design and practice which continually increases the intelligence of an organization.

12. Technological Change and Organizational Adaptability

Shows how technology evolves in ways similar to natural processes and how to relate keep in touch with what is happening so that you can adjust to it. Also explores the nature of impacting the way things develop and shows how those who get to start a trend can keep in front for its whole lifetime.

13. The Implications for Leadership

Explores how fear and uncertainty can imobilise or inhibit the thinking, the dialogue and the freedom necessary for awareness, intelligence and innovation. Creates an understanding that transcends this condition and creates a context of exploration and development on both the individual and organizational levels.

14. The Next Steps Toward Organizational Intelligence

Develops the way forward from the implications of the preceeding material. Suggests the required transformation in our guiding metaphor, in our language and in our practices and organizational design that will dramatically impact the organizational intelligence of our corporations.

Operational Applications (Appendix)

a) Questions for Going Beyond Limits

b) A Management Language

c) An Approach to Group Solutions to Persistent Complex Problems