Episode 7: What is emergence ? And why is it relevant for organisations

17/05/2020 12 min

Listen "Episode 7: What is emergence ? And why is it relevant for organisations"

Episode Synopsis

Emergence is a complex property of a physical system. A physical system can be anything from a bunch of atoms& molecules interacting together, up to organisations where people act and interact together as a system.
In the case of organisations, the components of the system can be roughly divided into

The people (and their competences, talent, personalities, ...)
The rules of how to work together (e.g. the objectives& goals, governance: who decides what, roles & responsibilities, reporting and metrics, ...)

Now,  what are the kinds of emergent properties over time ?

The knowledge that is created among those people (i.e. to achieve a goal or solve a specific problem)
The behaviour that is exhibited to create that knowledge

Why is this relevant and interesting (for managers) ?

The emergent phenomena (knowledge and behaviour) are the ones that determine success or failure !
But they cannot be understood/ explained/ predicted/ affected through only focussing on the components (the people & the rules to work together) !


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