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"I spent a lot of years trying to figure out where the axiomatic coherent
science was behind complexity. What I believe now instead is that it's not
a science. It is a syndrome and a collection of metaphors. Now, it may at
some time become a science or it may not, or maybe science will become a
kind of open system like that." - Glenda Eoyang
"So, what we're saying is that businesses are complex adaptive systems.
The word metaphor has been used a lot yesterday. It's always used a lot in
the business of context. Metaphors like, business is like the battlefield
or the sports field -- those are metaphors. We're not dealing with a
metaphor here, because businesses are complex, adaptive systems." - Birute
Regine
"Because the Holy Grail, as Gary Hamel has pointed out, in strategy is to
figure out how strategy actually gets created. That's the dirty little
secret of strategy. Nobody knows how it happens. Henry Mintzberg said it's
by accident; it emergent. But that's not good enough. We need to get
beyond it's just an accident; it's luck; it's emergence; it's visionary;
it's serendipity, blah, blah, blah." - Robin Wood
"You recognize the style. There's been two sort of thoughts, streams of
thought in literature and in practice. One says that yes, you have to go
out and you have to analyze; you have to pick things apart and understand
it. This is the kind of analytical thing, and if we're really
sophisticated we call it strategic analysis. And consultant companies are
great at this, and our MBAs are really good at it. Our MBAs can do an
industry analysis in 35 seconds, and there we are." - Johan Roos
"I would like to quickly suggest that if we care about complexity and
using it in a rigorous way and proving that it can be used in a rigorous
way and gaining some value from it, that these are a couple killer aps
that we can start thinking about." - Thomas Petzinger, Jr.
Managing the Complex (MTC) may have been only a four day event in March
but NECSI is pleased to announce that the event lives on .. on the web.
The quotes above are but a sample. There are also discussion groups
available and a Complexity bookstore.
Please join us at: http://www.Proceedings.Net/MTC/
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Our new journal: Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues in
Organizations and Management has appeared in print!!
See the web site: http://www.emergence.org Subscriptions are available
from journals@erlbaum.com
We are seeking articles submissions for issues 4, 5, and 6 (Winter 1999 to
Spring 2000).
The next issue will feature a review of the many books now available on
complexity and management. Coming this summer.
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NECSI and the Academy of Management are sponsoring a full day workshop
Complexity and Management -- Two Interacting Sciences?, August 7, in
Chicago at the AoM annual meeting.
Please see http://emergence.org/AoM.html for more details
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On a personal note:
John Seely Brown called it: "Mind expanding. Beautifully written. Finally,
a book that sees to the core of complex adaptive systems, revealing new
ways to "see" the world and to lead"
The Next Common Sense: Mastering Corporate Complexity Through Coherence is
summarized and available through http://coherence.org along with added
material about coherence, complexity, and management
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MTC has a health care workshop planned for October, and two conferences
planned in Japan (September and November) email me for more details
-- Michael Lissack <lissack@lissack.com> Director, Organization Science Related Programs, New England Complex Systems Institute 24 Mount Auburn St, Suite #2, Cambridge MA 02138 Editor-in-Chief, Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues In Organizations and Management 32 Garrison Street, Apartment #50-104, Boston MA 02116 http://lissack.com, http://necsi.org, http://emergence.org phone 617-536-4109 fax -- 617-249-0663 32 Garrison Street, Apartment #50-104, Boston MA 02116 phone 617-536-4109 fax -- 212-208-4349Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>