Harnessing Complexity

Harnessing Complexity PDF Author: Robert Axelrod
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723440
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Harnessing Complexity will be indispensable to anyone who wants to better comprehend how people and organizations can adapt effectively in the information age. This book is a step-by-step guide to understanding the processes of variation, interaction, and selection that are at work in all organizations. The authors show how to use their own paradigm of "bottom up" management, the Complex Adaptive System-whether in science, public policy, or private commerce. This simple model of how people work together will change forever how we think about getting things done in a group. "Harnessing Complexity distills the managerial essence of current research on complexity. "A very valuable contribution to the emerging theory of competition and competitive advantage."-C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan, coauthor of Competing for the Future "A brilliant exposition that demystifies both the theory and use of Complex Adaptive Systems."-John Seely Brown, Xerox Corporation and Palo Alto Research Center

Harnessing Complexity

Harnessing Complexity PDF Author: Robert Axelrod
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723440
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book

Book Description
Harnessing Complexity will be indispensable to anyone who wants to better comprehend how people and organizations can adapt effectively in the information age. This book is a step-by-step guide to understanding the processes of variation, interaction, and selection that are at work in all organizations. The authors show how to use their own paradigm of "bottom up" management, the Complex Adaptive System-whether in science, public policy, or private commerce. This simple model of how people work together will change forever how we think about getting things done in a group. "Harnessing Complexity distills the managerial essence of current research on complexity. "A very valuable contribution to the emerging theory of competition and competitive advantage."-C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan, coauthor of Competing for the Future "A brilliant exposition that demystifies both the theory and use of Complex Adaptive Systems."-John Seely Brown, Xerox Corporation and Palo Alto Research Center

Harnessing Complexity for Better Outcomes in Public and Non-profit Services

Harnessing Complexity for Better Outcomes in Public and Non-profit Services PDF Author: Max French
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447364139
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. How can public services and social interventions create and sustain good outcomes for the populations they serve? Building on research in public health, social epidemiology and the social determinants of health, this book presents complexity theory as an alternative basis for an outcome-oriented public management praxis. It takes a critical approach towards New Public Management and provides new conceptual inroads for reappraising public management in theory and practice. It advances two practical approaches: Human Learning Systems (a model for public service reform) and Learning Partnerships (a model for research and academic engagement in complex settings). With up-to-date and extensive discussions on public service reform, this book provides practical and action-oriented guidance for a radical change of course in management and governance.

Agile Business

Agile Business PDF Author: Bob Gower
Publisher: Rally Software
ISBN: 9781939337535
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
An introduction to Agile development from a business perspective. This book contains practical real-world advice from over 30 coaches, executives, developers and managers who are actively using Agile in their organizations and helping others achieve Agility.

Harnessing Hibernate

Harnessing Hibernate PDF Author: James Elliott
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 0596517726
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
"A step-by-step guide to Java persistence"--Cover.

Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning

Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning PDF Author: Nissen, Mark E.
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1591407753
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
"This book provides 30 principles on which to base the most important decisions and actions in an organization pertaining to knowledge management"--Provided by publisher.

Designing for the 21st Century

Designing for the 21st Century PDF Author: Tom Inns
Publisher: Gower Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9780566087370
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
An exploration of emergent roles for design and the 21st century designer explored through the work of 21 research teams. Over a twelve-month period each of these groups held a series of workshops and events to examine different facets of future design activity. Each of the contributions describes the context of enquiry, the journey taken by the research team and key insights generated through discourse. Editor and Initiative Director, Tom Inns, provides an introductory chapter that suggests ways that the reader might navigate these different viewpoints.

Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence And Learning, And Complexity - Volume III

Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence And Learning, And Complexity - Volume III PDF Author: L. Douglas Kiel
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
ISBN: 1905839138
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence and Learning, and Complexity is the component of Encyclopedia of Technology, Information, and Systems Management Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence and Learning, and Complexity in the Encyclopedia of Technology, Information, and Systems Management Resources provides the latest scientific insights into the evolution of complexity in both the natural and social realms. Emerging perspectives from the fields of knowledge management, computer-based simulation and the organizational sciences are presented as tools for understanding and supporting this evolving complexity and the earth's life support systems. These three volumes are aimed at the following a wide spectrum of audiences from the merely curious to those seeking in-depth knowledge: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

The Open Society and Its Complexities

The Open Society and Its Complexities PDF Author: Gerald Gaus
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190648996
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A mere two decades ago it was widely assumed that liberal democracy and the Open Society it created had decisively won their century-long struggle against authoritarianism. Although subsequent events have shocked many, F.A. Hayek would not have been surprised that we are in many ways disoriented by the society we have created. As he understood it, the Open Society was a precarious achievement in many ways at odds with our deepest moral sentiments. His path-breaking analyses argued that the Open Society runs against our evolved attraction to "tribalism" that the Open Society is too complex for moral justification; and that its self-organized complexity defies attempts at democratic governance. In his final, wide-ranging book, Gerald Gaus critically reexamines Hayek's analyses. Drawing on diverse work in social and moral science, Gaus argues that Hayek's program was manifestly prescient and strikingly sophisticated, always identifying real and pressing problems. Yet, Gaus maintains, Hayek underestimated the resources of human morality and the Open Society to cope with the challenges he perceived. Gaus marshals formal models and empirical evidence to show that our Open Society is grounded on moral foundations of human cooperation originating in our distant evolutionary past, but has built upon them a complex and diverse society that requires us to rethink both the nature of moral justification and the meaning of democratic self-governance. In these fearful, angry and inwardly-looking times, when political philosophy has itself become a hostile exchange between ideological camps, The Open Society and Its Complexities shows how moral and ideological diversity, so far from being the enemy of a free and open society, can be its foundation.

Think Twice

Think Twice PDF Author: Michael J. Mauboussin
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 1422155544
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
No matter your field, industry, or specialty, as a leader you make a series of crucial decisions every single day. And the harsh truth is that the majority of decisions—no matter how good the intentions behind them—are mismanaged, resulting in a huge toll on organizations, the people they employ, and even the people they serve. So why is it so hard to make sound decisions? In Think Twice, now in paperback, Michael Mauboussin argues that we often fall victim to simplified mental routines that prevent us from coping with the complex realities inherent in important judgment calls. Yet these cognitive errors are preventable. In this engaging book, Mauboussin shows us how to recognize and avoid common mental missteps. These include misunderstanding cause-and-effect linkages, not considering enough alternative possibilities in making a decision, and relying too much on experts. Through vivid stories, the author presents memorable rules for avoiding each error and explains how to recognize when you should “think twice”—questioning your reasoning and adopting decision-making strategies that are far more effective, even if they seem counterintuitive. Armed with this awareness, you'll soon begin making sounder judgment calls that benefit (rather than hurt) your organization.

At Home in the Universe

At Home in the Universe PDF Author: Stuart Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019984030X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos. We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe. Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life.