Complexity, Shall We Dance?

There is an old saying in Bengal, which runs something like this: One person is insignificant; Two together make something creative/worthwhile: Three persons collaborating make things complicated: When four get together things turn chaotic.

Needless to say governments, parties, organizations, teams, communities, online communities are complicated and chaotic. So, what do we do? Naturally, organizations are always wary of chaos and therefore want to bring in order through rules, regulations, regimentation, hierarchies etc. This is the common way.

But even with all that in place, leaders still want to feel the pulse of their people, want to keep a tab on what is going on around them, listen to stories, build culture and many other things. How do they do that? 

They dance with Complexity as a partner. They keenly listen to its music. They follow its steps. They feel the passion and sense its self organizing movement. Then they either copy the steps of complexity. Or they take charge to lead complexity. Or improvize and innovate on the way. But in no case they try to overpower complexity or play rough or be sly about it or ignore it. They dance cheek to cheek with complexity.

Let us see how great and good leaders go about befriending complexity,  

Deep immersion to learn

Here Mr. Bill Gates and his wife are seen in one of the remote villages of Bihar, India. Both of them are now highly involved in philanthropic work in India. However, as expected, they know very little about the country and its culture, which they must learn so as to bring meaning to what they are doing. Hence, they immerse themselves in that learning environment.

In Bill Gates own words, "learning from partners and community members in Patna, Bihar. Incredible start to the day…"

And why in the world is he doing that? Could he not have asked his well paid people to do that for him? They would have loved to send him a detailed report complete with facts and figures supported by photos, videos and what not. Obviously that would not work for him. Human interactions are very complex in nature and that complexity can't be fathomed to any degree of reality without deep observation and learning through direct experience such as this.

Is Mr. Gates alone in such Observation Based Learning through deep immersion?

No, it seems that other great business leaders keep doing this on a regular basis trying to learn within a given context.

Here is another photo that shows Sir Richard Branson practically doing the same thing with his staff located at various offices.

Deep immersion to build culture

The idea is not to straighten out complexity. The idea is not to find order in the complexity or avoid complexity or formulate rules to bring about simplicity. The idea is to befriend complexity to grow and develop by learning from it through direct experience gained through deep immersion and observations.

This brings us to another idea: How do organizations build upon such direct experiences of learning? They can do so through sharing such experiences on a common platform for others to learn and develop on the ideas gained. We call this social learning which uses Enterprise 2.0 platforms to harness the power of complexity and chaos to drive the organization in a self organizing and may I add creative manner.

Best platforms are those which are run on this idea of building on observations, ideas, deep immersions and learning not those who focus narrowly on retaining the heirarchical structure of work as the meaning of work is now undergoing a serious redefinition, the most useful I find is 'observable work'. Such platforms enable Culture Based Design for long term sustainability of an organization.

We now have another name for it. Seth Godin calls it Idea Tourism.

And why would this be so important?

Because money hardly brings in good ideas to sustain but good ideas rake in a lot of money to progress and sustain.

So, we need not be afraid of complexity anymore. Complexity is our partner in our progress not an impediment. So,....

Complexity, Shall We Dance.... since the 21st century belong to the tacit. Or is it?

 

References

1. Culture Based Design

2. Evaluating E2.0 Platforms

3. Management Upside Down

4. Coconut Uncertainty

 

 

The Throne

The chief’s inspection was due next week. He is going to come from Jodhpur (Rajasthan) for the inspection. Rani Dhan Singh Bhatti looked with eagerness at the planner in front of him and started pondering. Sardarji, the Chief is going to inspect all the four units under his control which means he is going to stay at Barmer for all the four days.  How to make the chief comfortable? He should not be annoyed and avoid making any adverse comments in his inspection report. Rani Dhan Singh Bhatti conveyed the dates of inspection to all the officers-in-charge of the four units’ which are under his control.

Bhatti has grown up in these golden sand dunes of the Thar Desert. He was born in a Rajput Royal family at Jaisalmer. The things which he inherited from his forefathers were his huge, intricately carved “haveli” (ancestral house), some cultivable lands and a throne. He prides himself when villagers still hail him as the “Prince”.  Bhati still gets the agriculture produce from his village. The millet, corn, wheat and a substantial quantity of lentils supplements Bhati’s expenditure on his yearly food budget.

Bhatti took a calibrated step after he reached his office. He plans to organize a big party for the chief on his last day of the visit. The show must be of a very grand scale. The Sardarji should feel that Bhatti also holds on to his rich traditions of royal hospitality specially given to a guest of honour. Bhatti calls the police band, the folk singers and the best chefs in the town. He ordered plenty of scotch and invited all the top government officials in the town. He caparisoned the throne and placed it on the makeshift stage.

Bhatti was very pleased with the arrangements. The enchanting sound of “padharo mhare desh” (welcome to my country) reverberated through the huge hall. The Rajasthani folk singers were singing mystically and wore their traditional dress complementing the atmosphere of festivity. The top government officials came with their spouses in tow. Mrs. Bhatti wore the traditional “langa-choli” and was welcoming the females. The police band started to play a traditional British tune as soon Sardarji arrived. Bhatti rushed to receive him.  After all a lot depends on the inspection report.  Scotch flowed uninterrupted. Every one seems to be enjoying the grand party. It was truly in a royal style. The traditional Rajasthani mutton dish was the most sought after.

Sardarji was too pleased with the whole show. He showered praise on Bhatti as he addressed the guests. After the brief speech Sardarji headed for the throne to sit. Bhatti rushed towards Sardarji and said “It is the host who sits on the throne”.

 

Lessons Learned:

1. If one thinks 'red' is 'blue' then it is extremely difficult to change his/her idea. Evidences and Logic don't seem to work well.

2. Such mental models can't be changed by force. It might only be changed through one's internal refection of the reality and struggling to make sense of it.

3. Since traditions and emotional attachments are very difficult to be done away with all change methods must acknowledge and reflect the reality of such attachments and work with it.

 

 

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Robots Run the Asylum

Winter was mild and cool

Time for fun& play

But old Mr. Ram was hard at work

 

25 years back on a fine summer day

Mr. Ram opened his factory

So that it never shuts down

 

Within last 5 seasons

Mr. Ram bought or built 6 more factories around the globe

So that his businesses never close & monies flow

 

Last autumn, when leaves were losing colors

Mr. Ram turned 72

He suddenly became young at heart & more adventurous

 

So, on a fine winter morning

He vowed never hit the streets to the airport again

Except visit his oldest factory once a day

 

50 years back

He was the brightest management student around

Now he thinks all management theories are nothing but junk

 

So he decides to muddle the mud on the shop floor

With his own ideas tinged by ‘creativity’

Rejecting all that he passionately knew

One Sunday evening when the moon shone bright

He had one of his brightest ideas

Why not have three Works Managers instead of one?

 

Next morning when employees trooped in grudgingly

They saw the notice board in awe

Henceforth each one would handle 5 bosses

By afternoon, when the sun shone dimly on the wintry sky

Managers were crest fallen – not knowing what to do

Employees smiled clearly knowing the path ahead

 

By Friday evening the air was chill

Productivity went through the floor

Lunatics ran the asylum

 

Darkness fell, stilling everything around

Motion came to a grinding halt.

Robots moved everywhere not knowing where to go

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Type II Training -- A Paradigm Shift.

How do we train workers?

It depends on how we look at the issue.

If we look at it as ‘workers are merely an extension of machines’ then we teach them skills to interface better with the machines they work with. We give them a fish a day to survive. This is the usual Type I training.

If we look at it as ‘workers are human beings who can think and figure out things for themselves and creatively contribute’ then we teach them life skills that expand their minds. We teach them how to fish. This is the unusual Type II life transforming educational experience.

There is a huge paradigm shift involved in these two perspectives.

For example, we organized and conducted for a multinational manufacturing unit located in Kolkata the unique Type II course for a period of 10 months. This was for a group consisting of 30 workers who have had studied up to Class 8. The subjects were: Science, Mathematics, Computers, Spoken English & English handwriting.

Many experts were cynical. They haven’t heard of such a course done for workers anywhere in the world. They predicted failure. So what? Having clearly understood the context and the reality we went ahead undeterred. Thanks to the Chairman to take up and support the radical idea.  

And the results were phenomenal. Supervisors vouched for the improvements they have seen with this group of workers. It was a phenomenon difficult to believe. Bosses were wonderstruck. Some were unable to comprehend as to how this could ever happen.

These workers absented themselves the least and were most productive through the year  

Quality rejection reduced without taking any special effort to improve quality.

Material wastage plummeted to an all time low in their area of work. .

They volunteered to take up jobs of their supervisors like logging production and rejection records on excel sheets, which they knew nothing about 10 months back.

They could now read and understand drawings much better, read the notices and circulars put up on notice boards and communicate with foreign visitors to their shop floors

In short, they were proud of their internal transformation and were willing to invest 2 hours of their time every day for the next 2 years for such life transforming educational experience – of the Type II.What next?

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