Introducing Emergent Behaviour - the internal combustion engine for business

Yes I'm on about the bees and the ants again! I've always been interested in the idea and the more I learn about it and make connections the more I'm drawn to finding out more. That's when you know you're all about this thing and it's woven through all the things you do- work and play. It doesn't have the easiest of names to slip into conversations, without stopping them in their tracks, but the evidence of it is all around us if you're looking in the right places. I'm talking 'emergent behavior, but in simple terms let's think about it as 'sharing useful truths'. More of that later- for now a definition of the term:

Emergent behaviour is behavior of a system that does not depend on its individual parts, but on their relationships to one another. Thus emergent behavior cannot be predicted by examination of a system's individual parts.

How can it be? Single things, with simple rules to follow multiplied many times results in something that we are unable to predict. At A-level I was fascinated with fractals, natural yet created with complex numbers, at uni I was deep into the behavior of many individual entities acting together but not influencing each other- what I now know to be weak emergence. Forward a few steps and now it's strong emergence where, through their interaction, a new entity is formed with new, emergent properties which it is argued cannot be simulated by a computer. So how about people and teams in the workplace.

Only now do I realise my interest has lasted the test of time and so it feels right to take stock and apply my own spin on my lifetime of intrigue. I take this concept that has origins in philosophy, religion, art, humanities and nature and for now break down what I consider to the catalyst components of emergent behaviour in the workplace. Triggered by a recent post 'The Iceberg of Ignorance', the link for which is below, here is my case for demonstrating the inevitability of the workings of emergent behaviour in the workplace.

Teams of Individuals

Teams of individuals all with their own personalities and drivers behaving differently which is all very human. What is surprising is the amount of effort put into believing we will always stay within our boxes and perform in a certain way. When Sim City was first designed it didn't have the individual foibles built in and as a result wasn't anywhere near as interesting to play. There is variance in the way we go about our business. We are not robots;

Working within Parameters

We do our work within some relatively broad and simple parameters, rules if you like, which providing we stay within we can adopt our own style and approach to the task in hand. Whilst doing so we have the ability to communicate with colleagues and so the likelihood is we will be giving simple messages about our progress which may influence the others do their own work and vice versa. Bees and ants do the same including this simple message structure which makes the whole structure the fascinating structure that it becomes. Top down command and control works to a point but from given point one there will always be wriggle room the 'doing our thing'. A example in and around work would be the tax rules are imposed and people work in and around them;

Multiplied many times over

Massive numbers of cycles and interactions through the working days, weeks and months. Multiple times in meetings and conversations our decision making and ability to influence the work is demonstrated. The compound effect of this is an incomprehensible amount of individual thoughts and interactions with others. The permutations are therefore staggering as a geometric progressions- that is that number of interactions between a system components increases exponentially with the number of components.

Sharing useful truths to power your business

And so by accepting this emergent behaviour will be inevitable and that the value within is the collective voice of the workplace let's encourage it to prosper and learn to lever it for the good of the business. Sure the board and senior managers have the ability to set the purpose and the culture from the top-down but how about a fair and equitable balance with the teams truly been given a voice to determine the direction of their own work. Provide a place for the sharing of useful truths to be encouraged for the benefit of the business. So often this is reduced to a Q&A which fails to capture the richness of the possible number of the permutations. There is way to funnel this energy by providing the right environment and light-touch structure to allow the conversation to develop naturally. Just like agile working focuses the conversation why not tap into the battery-like power of the voice of the team.

I recently read all about pretend structures, such as legal entities, in the Sapiens book. All that is real is the individual and their interactions with each other either directly or via tech and processes, scored by measures and money. This therefore is what I propose to be the light-touch structure with the addition of challenges and opportunities to focus the outcome. Watch out for more about how to make the most of emergent behaviour in your work and please do comment and share,

I referred to the 'The Iceberg of Ignorance' the link for which is: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/iceberg-ignorance-frank-zijlstra/