Innovation and CAS-Driven Organizations

The increasingly Complex (even Chaotic) nature of information-intensive contexts is highlighting the relevance of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory for organizations. As I've said repeatedly, Cynefin is the best framework I've run across for thinking about the implications of this change.

Most technical and business people have little understanding of CAS, so papers that describe how CAS theory applies to organizations can provide a quick introduction. "Complexity-Based Agile Enterprises", by Dyer & Eriksen, has just been published by Cornell's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. If you're looking for an introduction to CAS from a traditional management perspective, you might find this worth reading.

I have a few misgivings. The paper seems to assume that a context is either ordered (Complicated/Simple) or Complex. Although a specific context may be dominated by the Complex (or Complicated, etc.), most contexts have aspects of multiple domains (Chaotic, Complex, Complicated, Simple is the Cynefin taxonomy) that allow the decision maker to move the context from one domain to another. That's one of the strengths of Cynefin...it defines strategies and tactics for doing this. This paper seems to emphasize a linear movement (Explore, Exploit, Adapt, Exit), where Cynefin emphasizes deliberate movement among domains in a direction dictated by current needs.

The paper does a nice job of describing some of the ways in which a primarily Complex context has different staffing and organizational needs. And, they emphasize our knowledge in this area is relatively immature.

Anyway, if you're academically-oriented and interested in how CAS theory applies to organizing, check it out.