Notes - Gestão em Complexidade

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1- Paradigm
 
A paradigm is a perspective on reality that defines the beliefs we have on the foundations of knowledge, science and truth itself.
Therefore, changing paradigm means changing your beliefs about the world, truth, science and life itself. Changing paradigm is not simply meeting new cultures, spending time in another country, developing new knowledge and changing opinion, it is changing the intimate beliefs we have on the world and on ourselves. 
When Copernic discovered that the Earth revolved around the sun,  the entire universe changed, and simultaneously the beliefs we had on the place of humankind.
When Lorenz discovered that the simplest deterministic mathematical equations could produce completely unpredictable results on the long run, the positivist belief that the world could be predicted and organized, collapsed. 
Humans have changed paradigm several times with respect to the reality of the world around them. The beliefs change with new discoveries, cultural evolution and human needs. Some beliefs are much more useful during some periods of time than others ;)
For many scientists, our era is marked by a paradigm shift, switching from a positivist paradigm to a constructivist paradigm. The world is no longer a "clock with perfect mechanics" that can be predicted and manipulated but a "system in interaction" in which the flapping of a butterfly's wings could dramatically alter the place of humans...
The positivist paradigm has dominated science for several centuries. It is founded on contributions made by Adam Smith, supported by Descartes's reason, and extended by Newton's physics.
For the positivist paradigm, the truth about the world is illustrated by the metaphor of the clock: the world is, by its nature, a perfect mechanism, with proportioned, linear, deterministic movements, and regular sequences that are entirely predictable. For the positivist truth, the world is remarkably complicated, but entirely determined, there is no place for chance, with mathematics being its ultimate language. The role of science is to discover the "big equation" that governs all aspects of life and would make it possible to explain and control the world in its most intimate nature. Positivist scientists are external to nature and the phenomena they observe. They are objective, being by nature independent from the "objects" of their analysis.
The positivist beliefs are related to the spread of industrialization, the general use of rationalization in any domain, the need to control and manipulate the world that surrounds us and the management ideology.
Since the discovery of chaos theory and quantum physics, and since the recognition of the work of Turing and Belooussov, new questions have turned science upside down. Is uncertainty part of the nature of everything? Could the truth be non-linear, non-deterministic, non-causal?
New concepts are emerging, allowing the phenomena observed by current science to be further explained. We talk of self-organizing systems, emergence, evolution, fractals and consciousness. Little by little the contours of a new paradigm are being defined, the constructivist paradigm for which everything is in interaction and under permanent construction.
For the constructivist paradigm, the truth is both deterministic and random, the interactions between elements are more important than the elements themselves, hierarchical organization is senseless, as are compartmentalization, rationalization and the project of explaining everything through mathematics. 
Constructivism focuses on the ability of all systems to self-organize and self-create without any external intervention. The constructivist scientific project must include the uncertain nature of everything and unpredictability. Humans can no longer be external to the world around them; they can no longer claim to have an outside and neutral perspective, "naively" feigning objectivity. They are permanently linked to their surroundings, they are by nature involved and subjective.
The constructivist beliefs are related to self-organization, system sensitivity, complexity and to the need to accept uncertainty and to develop self organization (in management also). 
2- Rationalism
 
Rationalism is a direct consequence of the positivist paradigm beliefs.
Rationalism believes that  cause-and-effect relationships explain everything and that men would have the ability to identify and analyze all cause-and-effect relationships. Leibniz, in his “Essays on Theodicy” (1710), formulated in this way: “Nothing happens without a cause or at the very least, a determined reason” 
Applied to decision and action, rationality leads to the deny of uncertainty and complexity. Decision theories initially stemmed from mathematics and statistics. Business is believed to be a predictable sector that needs to be illustrated in the form of mathematical and probability calculations.  
Applied to business, rationalism led to the scientific organization of work. As the following videos show, the work of Taylor, published in 1911, is still a burning issue and even more today with the development of the Lean Management (even if the lean management asserts to be very different, it is high calculation and prediction in action).
3- The limits of generalizing
 
Generalizing is part of the positivist thinking process.
From this point of view, the world is believed to be naturally ordered and mechanical. Therefore, it is possible to generalize the results obtained in scientific research to all sectors in endless proportions. The same causes will always lead to the same effects whatever is the scale, the context or the background. 
However, as we face more and more complexity and as we learn more about life, the positivist project of generalization is questioned.
 
What are the consequences of the generalization of rationalization, industrialization? What about the generalization of medical prescriptions? about the use of mathematical logarithms? 
 
The following testimonies present interesting arguments... and reveal surprising effects ...  !
4- Ideological management 
 	Vincent de Gaulejac criticizes the positivist managerial project and its beliefs with humor.
In the following lecture he presents his book "The sick society of management – Management ideology, managerial power and social harassment" and points out that the managerial ideology has taken over society. 
"Local authorities, public services, associations, families, as well as human relationships are part of a huge market where competition rules without mercy and where the ultimate unit of measurement is money and financial profitability. Everything can be converted into capital to make a profit thereby reducing the symbolic order to nothing".
5- Society and capitalism
The actual controversy about the crisis of Capitalism is vivid. Discourses denounce the lack of morality of corporations, institutions and economy.
The criticizes enhance the need for Capitalism to become more ethical and develop morality.
But can we use morality or ethics to transform the capitalism?
Does it make sense to ask morality to "transform" capitalism?
What could be the role of ethics?? Can capitalism develop moral values ?
André Comte Sponville intrudes, reveals and illuminates our reflections. He allows us to develop more insight and responsibility on these essential issues.
6- The power of self-organization
 
Self-organization is one of the main beliefs of the constructivist way of thinking.
 
It demonstrates the capacity of systems to spontaneously generate new properties, new dimensions, new forms of existence. Self-organization challenges the beliefs of the positivist thought. Reality is no longer a state, a set of data evolving mechanicallyand predictably, but a living system able to self-organize and transform without human intervention and with no possible prediction.
 
For example, Turing's (1952) work on morphogenesis shows that the multiplication of human cells (by successive division of the same original cell) spontaneously differentiates and specializes cells. Cells of  bones, blood, skin, eyes, are emerging and spontaneously create a whole human being in constant evolution and transformation.
 
These nonlinear interactions and feedbacks can occur at very different scales. Numerous examples exist in the living world (population dynamics, chemical reactions, evolution of city systems, cognitive structure, learning, free organizing) and also in the technical and computer world (artificial intelligence, self-learning software)
 
Studies on self-organization show the importance of feedback, non-linearity and the open nature of systems. But surprisingly, in self-organization there is no external prescription, conductor or defined intention. Systems organize by themselves.
 
This overturns our positivist mode of thinking, entirely based on the predominance of a creator God or on mechanical laws limiting systems to reproducing identically.
 
Self-organization proves that all systems evolve on their own and that humans have little power to influence them in predetermined directions or to control them sustainably. So much the better, since a fully mastered system would simply be dead. So much for the pity too, since the power of natural and artificial living is so strong, that it leaves a precarious place to the human beings that we all are.
 
The videos you will find below describe the self-organization and its properties
7- Systems' sensitivity
One of the important beliefs of constructivist thinking is that systems are sensitive and that it is dangerous and naive to seek to control or manipulate them. A century ago, these dynamic systems were considered as marginal systems ... it is now considered that most human systems, ecological, economic, computer ... are dynamic systems.
The discovery of the sensitivity of systems gave rise to the Chaos Theory in the early sixties in meteorology. For many researchers, this theory, of which Poincaré had the intuition as early as in 1904, is at the origin of the paradigm shift in which we live today. There they see in it a scientific revolution of equal importance as the emergence of Newton's mechanics, Einstein's relativity or quantum mechanics.
This theory makes it possible to understand dynamic systems, their functioning and their evolutions. It helps to understand why and how complex systems combine determinism and chaos.
8- When the simple becomes complex
As part of the questioning of complexity and constructivism, the notion of evolution has a very special significance.
It describes how particles, individuals, computer operations and cells interact with their environment and how these simple interactions, multiplied endlessly by simple feedback produce environments of an ever-increasing complexity.
The notion of evolution proves that growing complexity is a naturally occurring tendency in all systems. It is useless to differentiate simple deterministic systems from complex systems, as all systems, how simple they could be at the outset, will necessarily transform into complex systems. At that point we are surprised, even terrified by the implications of these discoveries. 
9- Liberated companies 
According to Frédéric Laloux, more and more CEO's and employees agree that the positivist way of managing organizations must be replaced by a management that takes into account the dynamics of complexity. The management must be able to accept the self-organization of the systems, their sensitivity and their spontaneous complexification.
According to the author, more and more leaders know how to use their employees capacity of self-organization and develop this type of organization in different sectors and places.
These leaders give up the traditional practices of management. They abandon hierarchical structure by creating decision-making processes based on the consultation of experts and anyone affected by the decision. They value subjective and individual identities. They engage their trust to the extent of leaving to their employees the power to collectively make crucial strategic decisions.
In the following video, Frédéric Laloux presents these ideas and his work "Reinventing organization: towards inspired working communities". 
Video:=>
Formal hierarquic
Replicable processes
Orange organization
Multinational organizations
Wall street
Key Breakthroughs
- innovation
- Accountability
- Meritocracy
- Values-driven culture
- Empowerment
- Stakeholder model
Very succesfull organization works:
- Self organization (small groups without a boss)
- Wholeness
- Evolutionary purpose
Self organization (small groups without a boss)
They have to reinventing pretty much everything
Decision making in those new organization
It is something between consensus and hierarquical decision, it’s called advice process, which is: each person can make any decision if they are advised by an expert in the company and if they asked people who is going to be direct effected.
All information area available for everybody
Wholeness
t
Evolutionary purpose
10- Uncertainty
According to Emmanuel Kant "The measure of an individual's intelligence is the amount of uncertainties this individual is able to endure"
Hence, can we say that complexity requires to be "more intelligent", to accept more the uncertainties, rather than seeking to control and manipulate them?
Is Constructivist thinking really more "intelligent" because it accepts the uncontrollable nature of self-organization?
Is the positivist measure and control project desirable? Should we do whatever it takes to make it possible?
Each of us must answer these questions, in order to know in which direction to decide and act, how to influence and participate in society.
These questions coexist in the world around us, some people supporting the positivist project (and the rationalizing methods of management such as Fordism and Lean Management), others supporting the constructivist renewal (and self-organized methods of management). 
These are questions that finally profoundly challenge us on our ability to endure uncertainty.