Fritjof Capra says organisations are not just like living systems - they are living systems! In his latest 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.

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Pat Garland, at Egovni reports on a survey carried out by McKinsey and Company which suggests that business execs love user-driven collaboration but are much less enthusiastic about blogs.

Kare Anderson, journalist and author, has just published an excellent bioteams podcast, Be an Alpha Swarmer? Attract fans. Start movements, on her very popular collaboration blog. The podcast features a 35 minute wide-ranging discussion of practical bioteaming techniques and their real-world applications in various groups.

UK Small companies more open to virtual working practices than big ones

According to Online Recruitment, “Big businesses are left behind as smaller firms pioneer the remote office”, May 31.

A survey of attitudes to teleworking in UK business, carried out by Mitel, finds somewhat surprisingly that small businesses (72%) are much more open to remote and flexible working practices than their larger counterparts (44%).

One might think that the larger companies more advanced IT and communications infrastructures might make them more amenable to teleworking?

However perhaps mindset may be more important than technology with the bigger companies preference for ‘command and control’ and “if you can’t see it you can manage it” holding them back in new working practices compared with a more ‘self-managed team’ approach popular with small entrepreneurial companies.