Knowledge farmers are starting to emerge across a number of different enterprises and fields. In this blog series, I will explore concepts that are proving effective in harvesting collaborative intelligence from our everyday conversations and workflows. Insights are all around us and not limited to traditional business context. In fact, it’s in nature that we find a pattern language that has evolved over millions of years to help us organize and thrive. This series of lightly-edited posts will highlight several effective examples from a wide range of sources that are guiding the way towards a resilient and just knowledge commons.
Filtering Signal from Noise
A wise farmer benefits from a combination of ancient and modern resources and insights, the most valuable of which is their ability to filter signal from noise. This rare intuition empowers them to read the health of the farm by simply gazing out at their land. Based on what type of weeds and plants are growing, they can tell what the soil is like, and often know what is lacking and what is working in the soil biology and mineral content.
Complex adaptive systems and the problems and challenges that emerge from these conditions have a similar dynamic, where based on the types of problems an organization or business is going through, an experienced advisor, consultant, systems analyst, warm data alchemist or cyberneticist, can tell what some of the root causes…
