a decision lens for complexity v10

2/1/2015

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@tonyjoyce

V10

Feb 2015

Bureaucratic battles can be toxic when personalities and a culture’s unstated norms are the subject being argued. They can be ungrounded and unrealistic when groupthink has set in. But neither mode is the fundamental nature of bureaucratic struggles.

What persists is a constant tension between knowledge workers who collect, curate and assemble information, and the managers and media leaders who connect, convey and dissemble information.

The first pull, in the sense of Brown & Hagel’s “Power of Pull.” The second push at the first’s boundaries by setting agenda’s, starting and stopping dialogue, and exercising the other instruments of power in organizations.

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Part 1

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Chaotic domain is temporary or constantly changing; not something that can be explicitly examined From emailed conversation with Snowden on a

proposed framework

Simple/Obvious domain is deceptive I have a pessimistic view of what is called

Obvious, as it frequently seems to be avoidance of confronting hard decisions or inspecting the detailed evidence

Balancing in the Complex domain is key We internalize or absorb the tension

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Dissipate Chaotic

Visible Obvious

Exploit Complicated

Absorb Complex

Disorder

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Part 2

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Idealists accept that people will or can

change vs. pragmatics that anticipate people

will resist change

In idealists there is a tolerance of resistance

that pragmatics dislike

On the other side, pragmatists are less

certain of the outcomes, which idealists may

take as a lack of commitment

These sentiments lead to polarized politics!

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Snowden characterizes the divide as the

“difference between defining an ideal

future state, or set of behaviors that are

desirable, or acting in the present to

change things so that people's attitudes

and beliefs change as a result of their

interactions on the other.” http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/6384/between-

the-ideal-and-real/

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Visible

Exploit

Absorb

Dissipate

Sense of

present

Social-

Moral

Us-we-

them

Constraints

on future

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Polarity Explanation Perception

Constraints

on future

Justification of faith alone (Snowden #1)

Idealism 1

Sense of

Present

Justification of works and faith (Snowden #1)

Pragmatism 2

Us/we/them Vague “us” and “them” Agency 3

Social/Moral Stronger “we” and “ours” Empathy 4

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Snowden: http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/6384/between-the-ideal-and-real/

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Dissipate Absorb

Exploit Visible

Agency

Empathy

Pragmatism

Idealism

Cynefin


Part 3


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Source

Domain

Characteristic

(from)

Flow

(via)

Perception

(to)

Chaotic Dissipate Agency Pragmatism (or)

Idealism

Complex Absorb Pragmatism Agency (or)

Empathy

Complicated Exploit Empathy Idealism (or)

Pragmatism

Obvious Visible Idealism Empathy (or)

Agency

Some strange combinations:

Avoidance & Idealism (faith alone) serves to amplify blind spots

Absorption & Pragmatism (means & faith) diminishes future interests

This chart separates the static domains from the dynamic flows


The Role of Constraints http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/6385/complex-or-chaotic/

The 3I’s Intent, deliberate or habituation

Interaction, which are directed or free-will

Intelligence, from self-reflection and communication (feedback) from others

Interaction with the system as a whole in multiple (simultaneous) ways

Emergence with constraints

Vice randomness

Or blind compliance with rules


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Dissipate Absorb

Exploit

Agency

Empathy

Pragmatism

Idealism

Tolerance of risk

Hopeful Intent

Intelligence

Visible

Boundaries

Cynefin

Cognition

Perception


What is the return path?

What is the context of (our knowledge)?

Does it bring us back to the same domain (status quo)?

Or do we return (in the conversation) to a changed state?

A return to status quo is stasis, aka “resistance”

Action - Cognition (the upper layer) stems from scaffold’s Perceptions

Action pathways follow the flow of meaning

This is different from following the force of hierarchy or privilege

And different from following the energy of the topical or popular interest


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Part 4


Dissipate Absorb

Exploit Visible

Boundaries

Intelligence

Tolerance

Hope

Cynefin


Emergent

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Can we remove the scaffolding?

Are these entrained relationships?

Are they habituated in Cartesian thinking?

Or are they systemic to social networks (human

systems)?

Other scaffolds may reveal other emergent

properties


Domain Characteristic Perception Emergent Property

Obvious Visible Idealism Hope

Complicated Exploit Empathy Intelligence

Complex Absorb Pragmatism Tolerance

Chaotic Dissipate Agency Boundary

The pathway from intent to boundaries is always tenuous

Remember this is the hook (catastrophic gulf) division

Note also “all paths up are different, all paths down are the same”


Hope Boundaries

Visible Dissipate

Agency Idealism

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Chaotic Obvious

Complicated Complex

Idealism

Hope Visible

Empathy

Intelligence Exploit

Pragmatism

Tolerance Absorb

Agency

Boundary Dissipate


Part 5


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[Curmudgeon series] 12: Avoiding uncertainty and anti-intellectualism “The dichotomy of empirically validated recipes married to the

myth of the inspired leader is one illustration of that. You either follow a recipe or handover decision making responsibility to the cult leader or the cult method.”

“Ordered systems sustain recipes and repetition, chaotic systems in the main require decisive leadership or simply waiting for order to emerge (the free market perspective/heresy) but complex systems work in very different ways.”

“We manage an emergent flow not a static position. Once you embrace uncertainty it is no longer a scary place. What makes its scary, and creates the space for snake oil sales people and other charlatans (including some well meaning ones) is trying to pretend it doesn't exist.”

http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/6417/ride-the-wave/


Dissipate Absorb

Exploit Visible

Boundaries

Intelligence

Tolerance

Hope

Cynefin

Cult leader

Recipe followers Charlatans

Protector

Free Market

These leader/group behaviors closely match the organizational

forms that Boisot describes in i-Space

In free market,

boundaries shift

by evolution

(e.g. agency)


Fiefs = Cult leaders

Clans = Charlatans

Bureaucracy = Recipes

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[My comment] “It should be obvious ... but it isn't, as this level of essential uncertainty is rarely acknowledged in large organizations.” “Running multiple parallel safe-to-fail experiments in

organizations takes time and money as well as some strong insulation from the normal business, which is conducted by a collection of recipe users, cult leaders and exploitative operatives.”

“One of the few powers of executives is their time, often measured in very small increments. What they attend to as well as what they protect, or fail to acknowledge, is telegraphed quickly through the power centers of the organization.”

“This signaling is the essential function of Art Kleiner's Core Group theory.”

“Dave's "dumbing down" for the CEO is not an exercise in educating the individual as much as it is navigating the gauntlet of gatekeepers to reach the inner sanctum of the shadow core group, the powers behind the throne, if I am reading the context rightly.”


Dissipate Absorb

Exploit Visible

Boundaries

Intelligence

Tolerance

Hope

Cynefin

Core Group

(willing to live with uncertainty)

CEO (attention) Shadow Core

(gatekeepers)

Manager

Core Group roles/behaviors are a reflection of the power dynamics and

signaling (complex system flows) in the upper levels of organizations

Free Market


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Part 6


Organizatio

n Function

Regime General

(Concrete)

Contextual

(Abstract)

Easy

(Codified)

Hard

(Uncodified)

Available

(Diffuse)

Controlled

(Undiffused)

Activity Characteristic

Bureaucra

cy

Ordered Abstract Codified Undiffused Recipes Visible

Markets Complex Abstract Codified Diffuse Disruptive

Innovation

Boundaries

Clans Chaotic Concrete Uncodified Undiffused Charlatans Exploit

Fiefs Complex Concrete Uncodified Diffused Cult Leaders &

Followers

Hope

Manager Complex Abstract Uncodified Diffused Connector

(selective)

Intelligence

Shadow

Core

Complex Abstract Uncodified Undiffused Gatekeeper

(restrictive)

Absorb

(filtering)

Core

Group

Complex Concrete Codified Diffused Management

Committee

(activity,

agendas)

Tolerate

(disputes)

Chief

Executive

Complex Concrete Codified Undiffused Attention Span

(passive,

observed)

Dissipate

(power)


Via signals & fragments

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Core Group

CEO

Shadow Core

Manager

Clans

Fiefs

Bureaucracies

Markets

Boisot’s

classic

pattern of

the

Social

Learning

Cycle

Core Group

Pattern

Of

Management

Dialogues

Is there a preferred direction in the Core Group pattern?

Formal procedures by definition move from Manager to Core to CEO

Are managers more effective via Core Group or Shadow Core?

Are there opportunities or dangers in the easy alignments of verticals?

Bureaucracies & Shadow Core

Managers & Markets

CEO & Fiefs

Core Group & Clans

Are there easy connections along any face? Or are such linkages proscribed by rules or ethics?

i.e. Fiefs, Clans, Shadow Core & Manager: the four points on the Uncodified (bottom) plane


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Proprietary

Knowledge

(Bureaucracy)

Textbook

Knowledge

(Markets)

Common

Sense

(Clans)

Personal

Knowledge

(Fiefs)

Manager Core

Group

Shadow

Core CEO

Impersonal

Relationships

Competitive

Relationships

Peer

Relationships

Personal

Relationships

Social Learning

Formal

Procedures

Privileged

Or Covert?

4-points method

Triads (with focused questions)

Sensemaker ™ landscapes


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Part 7


Knowledge Transactions &

Exchanges

Signals & Fragments

Fiefs, Clans, Bureaucracies, Markets

(i-Space)

Core Group, Shadow Core Group (Art

Kleiner)

Ordered systems, Chaotic systems Complex systems

“Knowledge is power”, Hierarchy Constant tension & emergent flow

Image from http://www.enclaria.com/2015/01/08/balancing-power-and-influence-as-a-leader-during-change/


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Order Predominates

Boisot i-Space

Allee Value network analysis

Unorder Predominates

Snowden Cynefin, complexity,

fragments

Kurtz Cynefin “eyes”, PNI

Eoyang Container-difference-

exchange


a decision lens for complexity v10

Documents

tonyjoyce v10

agency pragmatism

pragmatism agency

idealism complex

faith snowden

avoidance idealism faith

complex domain

chaotic domain