THE GIX Bang
World – The Globalizing Innovation Complexity
The Emergence of a new World
It is remarkable that two important violent events
separated by the decade that ushered us to the new millennium have been the
catalysts in defining and shaping the world that we have been calling
globalization. When Iraq
annexed Kuwait
in August 1990, it was considered a defining moment of shift from cold war of
bipolar era. January 1991 Gulf War – operation desert storm and unique ways in
which it was conducted by the United
States resulted in multiple experts
proclaiming the start and application of a Revolution in Military Affairs
(RMA). The unprecedented interplay and cohesion obtained by integration of
precision technologies, networks, and information technologies was a remarkable
demonstration of extent to which new military operations will depend upon knowledge
and networking. This was a shocking surprise to military commanders who
were still indoctrinated in the old ways of mass destruction and mass combat
power to defeat massed armies.
Ten years later it was the turn
of the have-nots to attack the very
seat of economic power represented in the twin-towers of the world trade center
thereby reducing it to rubble. The permanent etching that Osama Bin Laden has
left in the world’s especially US
psyche despite the powerful US
defense forces perfecting the RMA’s that they created, has once again
reiterated the power of knowledge and networks. The way September 11, 2001, was executed
against the most powerful nation of the world, speaks of three main
capabilities – Globalization, Innovation, and CompleXity.
It took another decade and
trillion dollars for US to kill the icon of terror and chief of notorious Al-Qaeda
- Osama Bin Laden. The two decades on both sides of the millennium change
starting from sudden demise of Soviet Union and immediate 1991 Gulf-war and
ending with neutralizing OBL in Abbottabad in 2011, defines the new world that
definitely has changed the pace, politics and people that inhabit it in more
fundamental ways than we ever had before in in a short span of 20 years.
It all started about 14 billion
years ago – when space and time had no existence and the universe was what is
called a singularity – a compressed dot of extreme density that exploded with
such a force that it not only created sub atomic particles but a universe that
from all scientific evidence is still expanding. The chronology of events that
resulted in the massive explosion Cosmology theorists combined with the
observations of their astronomy colleagues have been able to reconstruct the
primordial chronology of events known as the big bang.
The three violent events starting
with Gulf-war, 9/11 and OBL neutralization are just a sample, albeit with very
violent results, of the interplay of the three capabilities of the new world.
This world is based on the ability of each one of us to leverage and exploit
knowledge and connectivity. Success in this new world requires ability to
search for knowledge, create new knowledge, identify the knowledge pieces,
convert these pieces into creating new value in terms of solutions, and flow it
through the networks of globalizing world in an efficient manner so as it
reaches the site of the problem in space and time in a least wasteful manner. The
massive pace of globalization, innovation and complexity that we are seeing in
last 20 years indicates a new big bang – a massive change – I would like to
call it the GIX (Globalizing Innovation Complexity) Bang world.
There seems to be
fundamental shifts that are shaping our lives.
Characteristics of the GIXBang World
We are living in a rapidly globalizing
world. In this shifting world, rules of the game can change anytime; success will come to those who adapt quickly to
the new rules. And as is common understanding, the best way one can adapt to the new rules is by writing these rules.
In these highly evolving times, with extreme uncertainties and time
compressions, it is the successful exploitation of ideas, i.e., Innovation,
which can be the only competitive advantage. The new globalizing world
is characterized by rapid change. One may argue that change is the only
constant in our world anyway, however, the pace of change in the globalizing
world enabled by technological advances in multiple dimensions, requires
understanding and responses that are unprecedented. The characteristics of the
new world are:
Global Real-time Awareness – 9/11 depicted a remarkable feature of
the new world. Besides the fact that it was a horrific event in terms of its
impact on world psyche – it characterized the feature of the new world where
events are beamed live in our living rooms. As the aircraft hit the second
World Trade Center (WTC) tower, one could feel and see what was happening. This
real-time awareness of what is happening across the globe to an individual
enables the individual to form his/her own opinion very quickly, and respond.
This capability and knowledge available to an individual in real time creates a
speed up in actions that is unprecedented.
Collaboration with Competition - This is the age of simultaneous
collaboration and competition. Many a times synergy in value creation is
possible when one starts collaborating with one’s competitors and sometime one
may need to compete with one’s collaborators. Collaboration is a much higher
activity involving cooperation and elaboration rather than cooperation alone.
It is the age of co-creation.
Power shifts to Knowledge Based Real-time Innovators – Power, i.e.,
ability to affect a change, has become more knowledge-based rather than based
on violence or wealth alone. However, speed is the new mantra in the
globalizing world. Coupled with a bias for action, indicates that power is
shifting to innovators who act in real-time and base these actions in
knowledge. This is a complex feature of the new world. Actors who manage this
complex interplay of knowledge, innovation and speed to affect or adapt to
changes, are creating the success stories in the new world.
A Fully Connecting World – The new world is characterized by
network form of organization, which is favored by the information revolution.
It is the most modern form of organization structure, successor to tribes,
hierarchies and markets. However, multiple organization structures compete for
their adoption in the globalizing world. Hence the networked form is integrated
with other forms to create hybrid organization forms. The new world needs an
organization structure more closely mapped to the network form. Many large
enterprises are struggling to come to grips with this change, which requires
fundamental shift in the organization structure. Although many enterprises have
successfully made this transition, however, the thinking of the people/leaders
continues to be hierarchical rather than networked. The new world will need a
rapid shift to networked thinking in
the organizations.
Barriers Demolished – Technological advances have demolished the
shackles imposed by time, trade, space, geography, culture, language, societies
and even history - as people realize the power of connections or networks. This
is creating a Global village where everyone seems to know about every event in
all parts of the world. This is a tremendous capability to have in a world of
positive energy. However, these networks can drag the world into negative arc
of destruction and demolition if the “have-nots” of the new world start
leveraging the new found freedom to form networks of destruction. The disconnected in the globalizing world
are left out. These disconnected may
become disgruntled and either may die out or may resort to disruptions.
Enterprises that remain disconnected need to quickly connect and become part of
the change rather than the victims of the change.
Survival of the Agile – Quick decision making and action as quickly
as possible is helping organizations adapt and survive. There is a need to have organization
structures that help in creating and deploying agile decision making processes.
Individuals Empowered to continuously re-invent – An individual has
been empowered to adopt and adapt to new ways of doing things. This enhances
his/her learning and ability to respond to multiple stimuli in much more
organized and innovative ways. Enterprises need to enable this continuous
re-inventing capability to each of its employees else it is obvious that
employees will find avenues outside to re-invent themselves.
Complexity
of the GIXBang world - The
connotation of difficult or hard to describe leads to a system being viewed as
complex. Complexity has been defined as two or more distinct parts that are
joined in such a way that it is difficult to separate them. This characteristic
of complex system led Ray Kurzweil, the author of “Singularity is Near”, to
state “I know English but none of my neurons do”. Complexity generates an
emergent behavior that is not exhibited individually by any of the parts,
partially or fully. Further the connotation of difficulty in understanding this
emergent behavior of complex systems springs from our classical methods of
thinking. These methods have proven their worth in tackling the issues of
classical science, problems and issues predominantly in a world of distinct
organization structures where the interactions between uniquely identifiable
elements were clear and unambiguous but relatively few and limited to specific
dimensions. These methods were based on reductionism or analysis, determinism,
dualism, correspondence theory of knowledge and rationality. However, the
classical methods of dealing with mechanical systems and mechanistic worldview
pioneered by Aristotle and taken to their zenith by Newton, faltered in
explaining the new observations that started coming in early parts of last
century. Further, the lessons from complexity research initiated a worldview
that real world is not the perfect, geometrical, ordered, predictable,
deterministic, rational construct that human mind, labor and ingenuity has
created by engineering perfect geometries that we see in all man-made physical
structures. The nature turned out to be an extremely creative and complex
system, where dynamism and emergence are the norms. It is with deeper study of
nature of information; man started realizing the inherent complexity of the
world that is unfolding.
Embracing Complexity -
We do not understand complexity. This is an inherent property of
reality and the nature shows umpteen examples of the complex behavior as
exemplified in the emergence of order in various seemingly simple, local
interactions with limited rules in various natural systems. Complexity emerges
from dependencies – informational, control, decisions, structural and material
dependencies. Connections create complexities as well. Multi-dimensional
dependencies create higher order complexities. How can one embrace complexity
rather than thinking or working for reducing complexity? How can one invent or
innovate to leverage the boundaries rather than always focusing on the core? It
is at the boundaries that value capture will have maximum returns. Value
capturing and value creation are interrelated phenomenon that one needs to
maximize.
Artificial and Natural Complexity - Complexity is not necessarily
natural; in fact most prevalent form of complexity impacting human-beings is
artificial. The artificial things are
synthesized by human beings. The world around us is full of more artificial
things than natural things. Starting from our morning alarms, newspapers, radio
music, television images and computer chat rooms – we work through artificial
things till the night when we sleep in artificially heated rooms and beds. The
design of artificial things, even though playing such an important role in our
life, does not consider the complexity these things create in our life. The
artificial has become more of a norm than natural for human beings (at least in
the so called developed world) thereby creating layers of complexity that get
enmeshed and intertwined in our life that we cannot separate the artificial
from us without seriously jeopardizing our so called civilized existence.
Further unlike natural systems
that may evolve because of specific constraints or available paths, the
artificial systems are designed at least in principle, with a specific goal or
function in mind. Further as Herbert Simon, in his book “Sciences of the Artificial”, describes, an artifact to be an
interface between inner environment and the outer environment. The artifact
tries to accomplish a goal or provide a function in the outer environment. This
artifact can have one of many possible internal environments to accomplish the
same desired function in the same environment. This is an important fact, as it indicates that theoretically infinite ways
exist to construct or design an artifact to accomplish specific function in
specific environment. This is important; because this fact creates an
uncertainty and unpredictability, in the artificial world that we are living-in
as it leads different actors to design different artifacts to achieve the
specific function in multiple environments. This is a dimension of complexity
that needs to be understood and grappled with.
The interplay of natural and
artificial is another area that comes under the realms of complexity. Natural
objects evolve through natural selection and based on the environment in which
they operate. The observations based on how the natural phenomena occur led
humans to fields of natural sciences. The industrial revolution started a clear
direction towards the artifact sciences where suddenly man-made objects became
prevalent and useful with specific functions or goals to be achieved in
specific environments. Modern world characterized by artificial environments,
virtual reality and synthetic materials, has become more man-made than natural.
Yet nature has not been tamed fully – in fact nature’s fury keeps on giving
clear messages of the journeys that humankind has yet to perform, in the form
of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and multiple natural
disasters that happen in many parts of globe.
Problem solving by
Complexification - Problem solving methods have always looked at how to reduce
the problem into smaller pieces and then solve the part problems. This has
served the science and technology through the ages. The complexification as a
method of solving problems is the other extreme. We are discovering that
sometimes more complexification may actually help solve problems. Systems are
designed to achieve functions. Can systems be designed so that functions (new
functions) emerge from the working of system(s). Emergence of higher order
functions, i.e., emergence of complexity is akin to emergence of life –
although may be at much lower order of, well, complexity. How to design
systems, or system of systems, to let new functions emerge? We are not only
asking these questions but are already taking more than baby steps towards
realization of such capabilities.
The increasing complexity – either natural, artificial or a combination
of both – is an important fact of the new world. The increasing globalization is
creating more complexity as is evident in multiple dependencies, connections
and unknown network effects the globalization pace is creating for humankind.
Yet there is hope – it is remarkable how much human mind is able to create and
synthesize especially in last 100 years or so. In fact, there is no gainsaying
that artificial future is more likely than a natural future – at least next 50
years or so. This is possible and thinkable only because of the human mind
which has proven to be an extremely robust and comprehensive factory of new
ideas, new thoughts and new memes that are successfully implemented to create
artifacts, synthetic environments, and robust global artificial systems. This
is the dimension of Innovation – which we defined as successful implementation
of ideas.
Innovation – the Success in
GIXBang world
Innovation is the key. Further it
is not Innovation in your home, your country or your organization. It is
Innovation through open collaboration with the whole world. This requires a
monumental mind shift by all. The inertia of what we have learned through
multiple centuries requires a rethink to wash away the legacies of disjoined,
protected, war ravaged, holocaust ridden, race-exploited, and hatred filled memes
that our minds have inherited. This requires counter-intuitive tools,
methodologies and frameworks coupled with new strategies and vision to make the
new world a success. We need frameworks as a coupled blue print to craft and
leverage innovation by co-creation. This is the fundamental need of the new
world and basic component of success in rapidly globalizing world.
Innovation for the purpose of this article will be defined as “Successful
Exploitation of (New) Ideas to create the desired change”. These ideas (New or
old) can come from other industries, our competitors, our employees, our
customers, our suppliers, or anywhere else. To identify and generate new ideas organizations need new methods to overcome
psychological inertia of core
competence. Further new methods are needed to overcome limited knowledge that
individuals and organizations have. What we know is limited by what we can know today; what we don’t know
today is what we will be forced to know tomorrow; what we should do is to
create as many alternative futures as possible and also keep with us as many
possible histories as possible. We don’t know which history is connected to
which future – but one path is unfolding right now – we need to find out which
one. More important is we have the power to create and choose paths that are
not evident overtly. This leads us to questions that need answers and trends
that we need to take into account for Innovating in an increasingly globalizing
complex world.
Innovation has four phases, (a)
Ideas (may remain in mind or may be expressed) (b) The way the idea is
implemented (c) the context (different) in which the ideas are implemented (d)
the (different from past) results it has produced. The uniqueness can be in any
of these four phases. However, all four phases need to be there for Innovation. Just to distinguish between
creativity, problem solving and design, we shall follow that creativity is the process of generating something new. Problem solving is the
process required when we seek some kind of a resolution, such as removal of a
drawback or achievement of a specific enhancement or improvement. Problem
solving usually includes creativity
as a part of the process. Design
activity is necessary when we are dealing with any kind of a system (read structure to achieve a function)
creation. The design process can include problem solving and, if necessary,
creativity. Innovation for our purposes will include all the three activities
and decision making. We define decision
making as a choice amongst a set of alternatives. The focus during creativity,
problem solving and design are human mind, specific problem and specific
function and structure of the system, respectively.
Since human brain/mind is central
to creativity and innovation, it will be interesting to review what human brain
is at this point. What are the key learning principles followed by human brain?
As we know, the brain can be considered
as a complex adaptive system. The
brain is a social brain. The search for meaning is innate. The search
for meaning occurs through patterning.
Emotions are critical to patterning.
Every brain simultaneously perceives and
creates parts and wholes. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention.
Learning always involves conscious
and unconscious processes. We have at least two ways of organizing memory. Learning is developmental. Complex learning
is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by
threat. Every brain is uniquely
organized.
Three Conditions for Learning
• "Optimizing the use of the human brain
means using the brain’s infinite capacity
to make connections–and understanding what conditions maximize this process."
Three interactive and mutually supportive elements that should be present in
order for complex learning to occur are:
– An optimal state of mind that is called relaxed alertness, consisting of low threat and high challenge.
– The orchestrated
immersion of the learner in multiple, complex, authentic experience.
– The regular, active processing of experience as the basis for making meaning.
The starting point really is to understand and analyze value that each
path can create. In any organization, term value is emerging as a focal point.
Before the release
of a recent Bollywood movie, the
Director giving an interview on the Television told that the movie has been
shown to “interest groups” chosen from the target audiences of the movie.
Further, some of their feedback, comments and suggestions have been taken up to
change the movie. If we extend the trend - the director, writer and producer
could have brainstormed with the group much before the movie started. The
concepts of various story ideas could have been discussed with potential
viewers and they could have been part of the process from the beginning. Better
still, there could have been partial brainstorms, feedbacks and discussion
sessions during the movie making so as to adapt the movie as per the inputs. This is the age of co-creation. The dawn
of the age may be signified when “interactive movie production” becomes the new
reality. This is after “interactive TV” and “interactive story writing” on the
Internet is becoming a reality. The individual in the new world demands
continuous involvement in the co-creation. The new world demands, defines and
develops new ways. These are not the bland ways of making the world flat – it is really about thriving in the melting pots of
creative juices. Evolving the interactions, connections, the networks, and the
chaos into rapidly moving and changing structures where the value is not in any
fixed static structure or organization. The value lies in the dynamic of the
structure. The new thriving, creative and ever evolving world demands new ways
to capture value and create value.
Characteristics of Success in the new world
The new world demands connectivity as it feeds on connectivity. It
demands freedom from all boundaries. It explains to us that the problems that
we are facing need not be solved by us. The solution might already have been
done in six billion plus population that is calling us for connecting. It asks
us to connect to the rest of the world without thinking about any boundaries of
language, time, trade, geography or race. It is remarkable that success is
defined in this world only through a model of continuous leveraging of
knowledge and connectivity. These are the fuels that empower an individual to
create, recreate and reshape his/her destiny as well as give the power to
redefine the world that we live in. This is an unprecedented capability.
What it means is that ideas, solutions and success are not the prerogative of
the select few. Success has transcended the whole gamut of human race and needs
tools, techniques and methods to leverage minds that are distributed and may be
hidden behind the artificial boundaries that we have inherited from history.
The globalizing world is
increasing the interactions, dependencies, couplings or connections in not only
the depth of existing dimensions but in increasing the number of connection
dimensions manifold. The complexity of the new world is increasing as it is
demonstrating the complex behavior associated with complex systems such as a
natural organism or a natural eco-system. Dealing with this complex world needs
new methods of study or solving problems. These methods need to be not only
aware of but thrive and exploit very nature of complexity.
Global Innovation Complexity
(GIX)
Global Innovation Complexity
(GIX) is increasing as the globalization is rapidly accelerating - we call this
the GIX Bang - on the lines of Big Bang. The GIX Bang is happening due to the
three inherently coupled trends of increasing globalization, increasing
complexity and increasing Innovation. However, these three are so intertwined
with each other that one cannot have a model of GIX Bang. A model of GIX bang
will involve explicit mapping of interactions between Globalization (G),
Complexity (X) and Innovation (I). Let us look at the parameters that are
impacting these three trends:
· G is impacted by
connections (new ways of technological connectivity across the world), Value
(economic, social, military, political, technological, human) across the globe
that the connections are enabling, Global real time awareness that creates
Ideas to increase globalization, Have-nots of the globalizing world are
creating various barriers for controlling these connections which impact
globalization adversely.
· X is increasing
due to dependencies which are global, in multiple dimensions, and much deeper
with multiple feedbacks that can create pockets of chaos and pockets of order
in the world which leads to more and more of possibility of new - the emergence
phenomenon that we all know about.
· I is the by
product - the G and X interactions demand and will create Innovation - it is
the only way for all of us
In the GIXBang world RAPID
INNOVATION is the way forward, through a rise and rise of networked individuals
and may be beginning the demise of hierarchies.
THE GIX Bang
World – The Globalizing Innovation Complexity
The Emergence of a new World
It is remarkable that two important violent events
separated by the decade that ushered us to the new millennium have been the
catalysts in defining and shaping the world that we have been calling
globalization. When Iraq
annexed Kuwait
in August 1990, it was considered a defining moment of shift from cold war of
bipolar era. January 1991 Gulf War – operation desert storm and unique ways in
which it was conducted by the United
States resulted in multiple experts
proclaiming the start and application of a Revolution in Military Affairs
(RMA). The unprecedented interplay and cohesion obtained by integration of
precision technologies, networks, and information technologies was a remarkable
demonstration of extent to which new military operations will depend upon knowledge
and networking. This was a shocking surprise to military commanders who
were still indoctrinated in the old ways of mass destruction and mass combat
power to defeat massed armies.
Ten years later it was the turn
of the have-nots to attack the very
seat of economic power represented in the twin-towers of the world trade center
thereby reducing it to rubble. The permanent etching that Osama Bin Laden has
left in the world’s especially US
psyche despite the powerful US
defense forces perfecting the RMA’s that they created, has once again
reiterated the power of knowledge and networks. The way September 11, 2001, was executed
against the most powerful nation of the world, speaks of three main
capabilities – Globalization, Innovation, and CompleXity.
It took another decade and
trillion dollars for US to kill the icon of terror and chief of notorious Al-Qaeda
- Osama Bin Laden. The two decades on both sides of the millennium change
starting from sudden demise of Soviet Union and immediate 1991 Gulf-war and
ending with neutralizing OBL in Abbottabad in 2011, defines the new world that
definitely has changed the pace, politics and people that inhabit it in more
fundamental ways than we ever had before in in a short span of 20 years.
It all started about 14 billion
years ago – when space and time had no existence and the universe was what is
called a singularity – a compressed dot of extreme density that exploded with
such a force that it not only created sub atomic particles but a universe that
from all scientific evidence is still expanding. The chronology of events that
resulted in the massive explosion Cosmology theorists combined with the
observations of their astronomy colleagues have been able to reconstruct the
primordial chronology of events known as the big bang.
The three violent events starting
with Gulf-war, 9/11 and OBL neutralization are just a sample, albeit with very
violent results, of the interplay of the three capabilities of the new world.
This world is based on the ability of each one of us to leverage and exploit
knowledge and connectivity. Success in this new world requires ability to
search for knowledge, create new knowledge, identify the knowledge pieces,
convert these pieces into creating new value in terms of solutions, and flow it
through the networks of globalizing world in an efficient manner so as it
reaches the site of the problem in space and time in a least wasteful manner. The
massive pace of globalization, innovation and complexity that we are seeing in
last 20 years indicates a new big bang – a massive change – I would like to
call it the GIX (Globalizing Innovation Complexity) Bang world.
There seems to be
fundamental shifts that are shaping our lives.
Characteristics of the GIXBang World
We are living in a rapidly globalizing
world. In this shifting world, rules of the game can change anytime; success will come to those who adapt quickly to
the new rules. And as is common understanding, the best way one can adapt to the new rules is by writing these rules.
In these highly evolving times, with extreme uncertainties and time
compressions, it is the successful exploitation of ideas, i.e., Innovation,
which can be the only competitive advantage. The new globalizing world
is characterized by rapid change. One may argue that change is the only
constant in our world anyway, however, the pace of change in the globalizing
world enabled by technological advances in multiple dimensions, requires
understanding and responses that are unprecedented. The characteristics of the
new world are:
Global Real-time Awareness – 9/11 depicted a remarkable feature of
the new world. Besides the fact that it was a horrific event in terms of its
impact on world psyche – it characterized the feature of the new world where
events are beamed live in our living rooms. As the aircraft hit the second
World Trade Center (WTC) tower, one could feel and see what was happening. This
real-time awareness of what is happening across the globe to an individual
enables the individual to form his/her own opinion very quickly, and respond.
This capability and knowledge available to an individual in real time creates a
speed up in actions that is unprecedented.
Collaboration with Competition - This is the age of simultaneous
collaboration and competition. Many a times synergy in value creation is
possible when one starts collaborating with one’s competitors and sometime one
may need to compete with one’s collaborators. Collaboration is a much higher
activity involving cooperation and elaboration rather than cooperation alone.
It is the age of co-creation.
Power shifts to Knowledge Based Real-time Innovators – Power, i.e.,
ability to affect a change, has become more knowledge-based rather than based
on violence or wealth alone. However, speed is the new mantra in the
globalizing world. Coupled with a bias for action, indicates that power is
shifting to innovators who act in real-time and base these actions in
knowledge. This is a complex feature of the new world. Actors who manage this
complex interplay of knowledge, innovation and speed to affect or adapt to
changes, are creating the success stories in the new world.
A Fully Connecting World – The new world is characterized by
network form of organization, which is favored by the information revolution.
It is the most modern form of organization structure, successor to tribes,
hierarchies and markets. However, multiple organization structures compete for
their adoption in the globalizing world. Hence the networked form is integrated
with other forms to create hybrid organization forms. The new world needs an
organization structure more closely mapped to the network form. Many large
enterprises are struggling to come to grips with this change, which requires
fundamental shift in the organization structure. Although many enterprises have
successfully made this transition, however, the thinking of the people/leaders
continues to be hierarchical rather than networked. The new world will need a
rapid shift to networked thinking in
the organizations.
Barriers Demolished – Technological advances have demolished the
shackles imposed by time, trade, space, geography, culture, language, societies
and even history - as people realize the power of connections or networks. This
is creating a Global village where everyone seems to know about every event in
all parts of the world. This is a tremendous capability to have in a world of
positive energy. However, these networks can drag the world into negative arc
of destruction and demolition if the “have-nots” of the new world start
leveraging the new found freedom to form networks of destruction. The disconnected in the globalizing world
are left out. These disconnected may
become disgruntled and either may die out or may resort to disruptions.
Enterprises that remain disconnected need to quickly connect and become part of
the change rather than the victims of the change.
Survival of the Agile – Quick decision making and action as quickly
as possible is helping organizations adapt and survive. There is a need to have organization
structures that help in creating and deploying agile decision making processes.
Individuals Empowered to continuously re-invent – An individual has
been empowered to adopt and adapt to new ways of doing things. This enhances
his/her learning and ability to respond to multiple stimuli in much more
organized and innovative ways. Enterprises need to enable this continuous
re-inventing capability to each of its employees else it is obvious that
employees will find avenues outside to re-invent themselves.
Complexity
of the GIXBang world - The
connotation of difficult or hard to describe leads to a system being viewed as
complex. Complexity has been defined as two or more distinct parts that are
joined in such a way that it is difficult to separate them. This characteristic
of complex system led Ray Kurzweil, the author of “Singularity is Near”, to
state “I know English but none of my neurons do”. Complexity generates an
emergent behavior that is not exhibited individually by any of the parts,
partially or fully. Further the connotation of difficulty in understanding this
emergent behavior of complex systems springs from our classical methods of
thinking. These methods have proven their worth in tackling the issues of
classical science, problems and issues predominantly in a world of distinct
organization structures where the interactions between uniquely identifiable
elements were clear and unambiguous but relatively few and limited to specific
dimensions. These methods were based on reductionism or analysis, determinism,
dualism, correspondence theory of knowledge and rationality. However, the
classical methods of dealing with mechanical systems and mechanistic worldview
pioneered by Aristotle and taken to their zenith by Newton, faltered in
explaining the new observations that started coming in early parts of last
century. Further, the lessons from complexity research initiated a worldview
that real world is not the perfect, geometrical, ordered, predictable,
deterministic, rational construct that human mind, labor and ingenuity has
created by engineering perfect geometries that we see in all man-made physical
structures. The nature turned out to be an extremely creative and complex
system, where dynamism and emergence are the norms. It is with deeper study of
nature of information; man started realizing the inherent complexity of the
world that is unfolding.
Embracing Complexity -
We do not understand complexity. This is an inherent property of
reality and the nature shows umpteen examples of the complex behavior as
exemplified in the emergence of order in various seemingly simple, local
interactions with limited rules in various natural systems. Complexity emerges
from dependencies – informational, control, decisions, structural and material
dependencies. Connections create complexities as well. Multi-dimensional
dependencies create higher order complexities. How can one embrace complexity
rather than thinking or working for reducing complexity? How can one invent or
innovate to leverage the boundaries rather than always focusing on the core? It
is at the boundaries that value capture will have maximum returns. Value
capturing and value creation are interrelated phenomenon that one needs to
maximize.
Artificial and Natural Complexity - Complexity is not necessarily
natural; in fact most prevalent form of complexity impacting human-beings is
artificial. The artificial things are
synthesized by human beings. The world around us is full of more artificial
things than natural things. Starting from our morning alarms, newspapers, radio
music, television images and computer chat rooms – we work through artificial
things till the night when we sleep in artificially heated rooms and beds. The
design of artificial things, even though playing such an important role in our
life, does not consider the complexity these things create in our life. The
artificial has become more of a norm than natural for human beings (at least in
the so called developed world) thereby creating layers of complexity that get
enmeshed and intertwined in our life that we cannot separate the artificial
from us without seriously jeopardizing our so called civilized existence.
Further unlike natural systems
that may evolve because of specific constraints or available paths, the
artificial systems are designed at least in principle, with a specific goal or
function in mind. Further as Herbert Simon, in his book “Sciences of the Artificial”, describes, an artifact to be an
interface between inner environment and the outer environment. The artifact
tries to accomplish a goal or provide a function in the outer environment. This
artifact can have one of many possible internal environments to accomplish the
same desired function in the same environment. This is an important fact, as it indicates that theoretically infinite ways
exist to construct or design an artifact to accomplish specific function in
specific environment. This is important; because this fact creates an
uncertainty and unpredictability, in the artificial world that we are living-in
as it leads different actors to design different artifacts to achieve the
specific function in multiple environments. This is a dimension of complexity
that needs to be understood and grappled with.
The interplay of natural and
artificial is another area that comes under the realms of complexity. Natural
objects evolve through natural selection and based on the environment in which
they operate. The observations based on how the natural phenomena occur led
humans to fields of natural sciences. The industrial revolution started a clear
direction towards the artifact sciences where suddenly man-made objects became
prevalent and useful with specific functions or goals to be achieved in
specific environments. Modern world characterized by artificial environments,
virtual reality and synthetic materials, has become more man-made than natural.
Yet nature has not been tamed fully – in fact nature’s fury keeps on giving
clear messages of the journeys that humankind has yet to perform, in the form
of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and multiple natural
disasters that happen in many parts of globe.
Problem solving by
Complexification - Problem solving methods have always looked at how to reduce
the problem into smaller pieces and then solve the part problems. This has
served the science and technology through the ages. The complexification as a
method of solving problems is the other extreme. We are discovering that
sometimes more complexification may actually help solve problems. Systems are
designed to achieve functions. Can systems be designed so that functions (new
functions) emerge from the working of system(s). Emergence of higher order
functions, i.e., emergence of complexity is akin to emergence of life –
although may be at much lower order of, well, complexity. How to design
systems, or system of systems, to let new functions emerge? We are not only
asking these questions but are already taking more than baby steps towards
realization of such capabilities.
The increasing complexity – either natural, artificial or a combination
of both – is an important fact of the new world. The increasing globalization is
creating more complexity as is evident in multiple dependencies, connections
and unknown network effects the globalization pace is creating for humankind.
Yet there is hope – it is remarkable how much human mind is able to create and
synthesize especially in last 100 years or so. In fact, there is no gainsaying
that artificial future is more likely than a natural future – at least next 50
years or so. This is possible and thinkable only because of the human mind
which has proven to be an extremely robust and comprehensive factory of new
ideas, new thoughts and new memes that are successfully implemented to create
artifacts, synthetic environments, and robust global artificial systems. This
is the dimension of Innovation – which we defined as successful implementation
of ideas.
Innovation – the Success in
GIXBang world
Innovation is the key. Further it
is not Innovation in your home, your country or your organization. It is
Innovation through open collaboration with the whole world. This requires a
monumental mind shift by all. The inertia of what we have learned through
multiple centuries requires a rethink to wash away the legacies of disjoined,
protected, war ravaged, holocaust ridden, race-exploited, and hatred filled memes
that our minds have inherited. This requires counter-intuitive tools,
methodologies and frameworks coupled with new strategies and vision to make the
new world a success. We need frameworks as a coupled blue print to craft and
leverage innovation by co-creation. This is the fundamental need of the new
world and basic component of success in rapidly globalizing world.
Innovation for the purpose of this article will be defined as “Successful
Exploitation of (New) Ideas to create the desired change”. These ideas (New or
old) can come from other industries, our competitors, our employees, our
customers, our suppliers, or anywhere else. To identify and generate new ideas organizations need new methods to overcome
psychological inertia of core
competence. Further new methods are needed to overcome limited knowledge that
individuals and organizations have. What we know is limited by what we can know today; what we don’t know
today is what we will be forced to know tomorrow; what we should do is to
create as many alternative futures as possible and also keep with us as many
possible histories as possible. We don’t know which history is connected to
which future – but one path is unfolding right now – we need to find out which
one. More important is we have the power to create and choose paths that are
not evident overtly. This leads us to questions that need answers and trends
that we need to take into account for Innovating in an increasingly globalizing
complex world.
Innovation has four phases, (a)
Ideas (may remain in mind or may be expressed) (b) The way the idea is
implemented (c) the context (different) in which the ideas are implemented (d)
the (different from past) results it has produced. The uniqueness can be in any
of these four phases. However, all four phases need to be there for Innovation. Just to distinguish between
creativity, problem solving and design, we shall follow that creativity is the process of generating something new. Problem solving is the
process required when we seek some kind of a resolution, such as removal of a
drawback or achievement of a specific enhancement or improvement. Problem
solving usually includes creativity
as a part of the process. Design
activity is necessary when we are dealing with any kind of a system (read structure to achieve a function)
creation. The design process can include problem solving and, if necessary,
creativity. Innovation for our purposes will include all the three activities
and decision making. We define decision
making as a choice amongst a set of alternatives. The focus during creativity,
problem solving and design are human mind, specific problem and specific
function and structure of the system, respectively.
Since human brain/mind is central
to creativity and innovation, it will be interesting to review what human brain
is at this point. What are the key learning principles followed by human brain?
As we know, the brain can be considered
as a complex adaptive system. The
brain is a social brain. The search for meaning is innate. The search
for meaning occurs through patterning.
Emotions are critical to patterning.
Every brain simultaneously perceives and
creates parts and wholes. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention.
Learning always involves conscious
and unconscious processes. We have at least two ways of organizing memory. Learning is developmental. Complex learning
is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by
threat. Every brain is uniquely
organized.
Three Conditions for Learning
• "Optimizing the use of the human brain
means using the brain’s infinite capacity
to make connections–and understanding what conditions maximize this process."
Three interactive and mutually supportive elements that should be present in
order for complex learning to occur are:
– An optimal state of mind that is called relaxed alertness, consisting of low threat and high challenge.
– The orchestrated
immersion of the learner in multiple, complex, authentic experience.
– The regular, active processing of experience as the basis for making meaning.
The starting point really is to understand and analyze value that each
path can create. In any organization, term value is emerging as a focal point.
Before the release
of a recent Bollywood movie, the
Director giving an interview on the Television told that the movie has been
shown to “interest groups” chosen from the target audiences of the movie.
Further, some of their feedback, comments and suggestions have been taken up to
change the movie. If we extend the trend - the director, writer and producer
could have brainstormed with the group much before the movie started. The
concepts of various story ideas could have been discussed with potential
viewers and they could have been part of the process from the beginning. Better
still, there could have been partial brainstorms, feedbacks and discussion
sessions during the movie making so as to adapt the movie as per the inputs. This is the age of co-creation. The dawn
of the age may be signified when “interactive movie production” becomes the new
reality. This is after “interactive TV” and “interactive story writing” on the
Internet is becoming a reality. The individual in the new world demands
continuous involvement in the co-creation. The new world demands, defines and
develops new ways. These are not the bland ways of making the world flat – it is really about thriving in the melting pots of
creative juices. Evolving the interactions, connections, the networks, and the
chaos into rapidly moving and changing structures where the value is not in any
fixed static structure or organization. The value lies in the dynamic of the
structure. The new thriving, creative and ever evolving world demands new ways
to capture value and create value.
Characteristics of Success in the new world
The new world demands connectivity as it feeds on connectivity. It
demands freedom from all boundaries. It explains to us that the problems that
we are facing need not be solved by us. The solution might already have been
done in six billion plus population that is calling us for connecting. It asks
us to connect to the rest of the world without thinking about any boundaries of
language, time, trade, geography or race. It is remarkable that success is
defined in this world only through a model of continuous leveraging of
knowledge and connectivity. These are the fuels that empower an individual to
create, recreate and reshape his/her destiny as well as give the power to
redefine the world that we live in. This is an unprecedented capability.
What it means is that ideas, solutions and success are not the prerogative of
the select few. Success has transcended the whole gamut of human race and needs
tools, techniques and methods to leverage minds that are distributed and may be
hidden behind the artificial boundaries that we have inherited from history.
The globalizing world is
increasing the interactions, dependencies, couplings or connections in not only
the depth of existing dimensions but in increasing the number of connection
dimensions manifold. The complexity of the new world is increasing as it is
demonstrating the complex behavior associated with complex systems such as a
natural organism or a natural eco-system. Dealing with this complex world needs
new methods of study or solving problems. These methods need to be not only
aware of but thrive and exploit very nature of complexity.
Global Innovation Complexity
(GIX)
Global Innovation Complexity
(GIX) is increasing as the globalization is rapidly accelerating - we call this
the GIX Bang - on the lines of Big Bang. The GIX Bang is happening due to the
three inherently coupled trends of increasing globalization, increasing
complexity and increasing Innovation. However, these three are so intertwined
with each other that one cannot have a model of GIX Bang. A model of GIX bang
will involve explicit mapping of interactions between Globalization (G),
Complexity (X) and Innovation (I). Let us look at the parameters that are
impacting these three trends:
· G is impacted by
connections (new ways of technological connectivity across the world), Value
(economic, social, military, political, technological, human) across the globe
that the connections are enabling, Global real time awareness that creates
Ideas to increase globalization, Have-nots of the globalizing world are
creating various barriers for controlling these connections which impact
globalization adversely.
· X is increasing
due to dependencies which are global, in multiple dimensions, and much deeper
with multiple feedbacks that can create pockets of chaos and pockets of order
in the world which leads to more and more of possibility of new - the emergence
phenomenon that we all know about.
· I is the by
product - the G and X interactions demand and will create Innovation - it is
the only way for all of us
In the GIXBang world RAPID
INNOVATION is the way forward, through a rise and rise of networked individuals
and may be beginning the demise of hierarchies.
