From Social Networking to Swarm Intelligence
A new area of research called "complexity science" embraces the notion that an ant colony and the human brain, the stock market and Facebook all have something in common. All are complex systems, basically huge networks made up of individual components whose behavior is difficult to predict. Kathleen Ryan O'Connor reports on Bioteams and Research from Binghamton University NY.
In terms of Bioteams Kathleen writes:
"It is exactly that rapid-fire change of today's business climate that has shown the pressing need for a new framework, said Ken Thompson, a United Kingdom based expert in the area of bioteaming, swarming and virtual enterprise networks and teams, which draws heavily on the understanding of complex systems in nature. His most recent book is Bioteams: High Performance Teams Based on Nature's Most Successful Designs".
Traditional business teams rely too heavily on a single dominant structure - command and control, also known as individually led teams, he said, drawing from the military. Such an approach "served us well in the era of mass production when costs, consistency and compliance were everything," Thompson said.
But that model falls well short in today's world full of "networks, dynamic alliances, virtual collaborations - where agility, innovation, added-value and responsiveness are king," he said. "We urgently need to find a new model which recognizes that organizations are not predictable systems, like clocks, but unpredictable ecosystems, like living things. The natural place to look for this model is nature itself with its numerous examples of self-organizing systems and teams in ants, bees, dolphins, wolves, geese and many more."
Tags: bioteams, complex systems
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Bioteams Books Reviews
Effective Brainstorming: Top Tips
Brainstorming, despite the popularity of the term, is one of the most challenging collaborative activities to carry out. While most people think they know how to brainstorm, very few really understand how to consistently make a session work. Ken Thompson and Robin Good share some of the secrets gleaned from "The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm"
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Related Collaboration Research & Science Articles
The Surprising Secret of Team Productivity: Cubicles
In Collision detection Clive Thompson comments on a new study published in The Journal of Human Movement Science (Dec 2007), which suggests that when you can see other workers performing different tasks out the corner of your eye, it slows you down.
Swarm behavior and organizational teams
Frank Lacombe of the Evolutionary and Swarm Design Group at the University of Calgary offers a good introduction to the concept of Swarm Behavior. Using examples of ants, bees, birds, fish, and termites he identifies the two main advantages of such decentralized systems: robustness and flexibility. The objective of bioteaming is to realise these same two swarm behavior advantages in organisational teams and inter-organisational business networks.
Virtual Teams, Virtual Groups and Virtual Crowds
The million member virtual team? Does the internet and recent advances in virtual, social and mobile technologies make it possible for human teams to be effectively unlimited in scale and rival even the largest ant colonies in terms of collaborating members? [Originally Published June 2005].
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