Self Organization

How and why you should not misinterpret the findings of Google’s Project Oxygen. — I introduced Google’s Project Oxygen in last week’s newsletter. In this here Part 2, I’d like to dispel three possible misinterpretations of its findings before offering some thoughts of my own: 1. Managers should never command or control It’s possible to misinterpret the findings of Project Oxygen to mean that managers should never command or control. But…

The guest article “Self-organization seen from the inside — or: how does life work” by Dr. Wolfgang Stegemann represents the first part of our planned joint venture. The project pursues the ambitious goal of the self-organization of life as an autopoietic system, but in the sense of a demarcation from the “tertium non datur” of classical systems theory (George Spencer-Brown, Niklas Luhmann) as a “difference” of “system vs. environment” or of “inside vs. outside”.

Morning Star is one of the largest tomato processor in the United States and grows by being innovative. Its website site states they are the “Industry leader in size and innovation.” We don’t often think of the tomato processing business and innovation in the same sentence, but Morning Star built…

The rules are simple: Teams can add or remove members using consent. Members can join or leave teams with reasonable notice. And members can manage their bandwidth (i.e., hold many roles). Open positions are shared, and members can “apply” by meeting with other team members, discussing the work, and sharing…

My son is in seventh grade and appearing for his final exams. As part of the preparation, he wrote a pre-exam at home and asked me to review the paper. While going through it, I came across a topic that recharged my mind and reminded me of a science topic…

As a leader, you’re always looking for ways to improve your leadership style, motivate your team, and drive results. But what if I told you that there’s a book out there that could transform the way you lead and help you create a more self-organizing, accountable, and engaged team? Introducing…

A beginners introduction to balance and flow, structure and change within living systems. By exploring Fritjof Capra’s approach to self-organisation, open systems and emergence. — Summary Biological life is an emergent structure. It has a pattern that enables life to emerge. Sugar provides an analogy for this. None of sugar’s 3 individual components (elements) taste sweet on their own. But when you combine them in the right pattern the sweetness emerges.