Organisations are living complex systems claims physicist
Stumble It!Fritjof Capra says organisations are not just like living systems - they are living systems!
Bioteams are alive!
In his book, The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, acclaimed physicist and author of The Web of Life and The Tao of Physics, challenges us to go beyond the metaphor and see to what extent human organisations can literally be understood as living systems.
Capra describes the five main metaphors which people have used to understand organisations:
- Machines
- Organisms
- Brains
- Cultures
- Systems of government
Capra concludes that the fundamental debate is really whether we see our organisations as Machines (predictable) or Living System (unpredictable)
In an inspirational chapter "Life and leadership in organisations" ( pp 85-112) Fritjof shows how a leader can address the key organisational and team challenges from a pure "living organisation" perspective including:
- Change Management
- Organisational Learning
- Novelty and Innovation
- Design and emergence
- Leadership
- Dignity
References
1. Capra F., 2002. The Hidden Connections, Flamingo, pp. 85-112
Tags: bioteams, complex systems
Digg | 
del.icio.us | 
Reddit | 
Yahoo! | 
Add to my favourites
Bioteams Books Reviews
The coming shape of organizations and teams
Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.
Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK
Related Bioteams Features Articles
Team Swarming: are your team wasps or bees
Sometimes the Bee-team is the A-team: the importance of an automatic team swarm response to threats and opportunities.
Team Transformation Rule 2: Cultivate Team Intelligence
Cultivating Team Intelligence provides organizational teams, networks and communities with a much better early warning 'radar' thus enabling them to spot and deal with problems/opportunities sooner.
Virtual team productivity - three action rules from nature
In this article I introduce and identify the fundamental key overarching principle of Bioteams and define the first three action rules that can enable existing "Virtually Networked Teams" to start integrating Bioteaming full potential. By Ken Thompson and Robin Good.
Leave a comment