Post on 17-Dec-2015
Purpose
Catalyze the emergence of an empirical research agenda to develop complexity leadership ideas.
Enable a rich, collaborative interaction network among scholars who are theorizing, experimenting and innovating in the complexity leadership area.
Innovate thru high quality research to be published in upcoming books & journal issues.
What We Have Planned Overview of Complexity Leadership
Deeper dive into key areas of interest Leadership and non-linear dynamical systems Emergence and leadership Top-down versus bottom-up Leadership as enabling & catalyzing interactions Dynamic network analysis Innovation and creativity as outcomes
Focus on specific research questions
Interactive sessions on research design
Overview of Field Began with Marion & Uhl-Bien (2001) LQ Developments since then:
Special issue of LQ out now August, 2007 Two Books in press by Uhl-Bien & Marion and Hazy,
Goldstein & Lichtenstein Special Issue of Emergence: Complexity and
Organizations (E:CO) 8(4) December 2006 Articles on complexity and leadership appearing in major
journals (LQ, AMJ) Two workshops held in 2005 on Complexity and
Leadership Wiki page and network of scholars
What is Complexity Leadership?
Application of complexity science to principles to leadership Complexity science developed in the physical
sciences New paradigm to think about leadership
based in complex adaptive systems (rather than bureaucracy)
This paradigm well suited to the needs of the global, connectionist, knowledge era
Basics of Complexity Theory
Complex systems/ complex adaptive systems Interacting sets of autonomous agents or ideas
Characteristics: The time dimension: dynamical systems and attractors Interactive, interdependent agents Emergence of properties at higher levels Evolutionary selection at multiple levels Network structures Innovation, learning & complexity
Deeper dives into themes
Non-Linear dynamical systems Kevin
Emergence & leadership Jim
Bottom-up & top-down Mary
Enabling & catalyzing interactions Russ
Network dynamics Craig
Innovation & complexity leadership Gita
Nonlinear dynamical systems
Nonlinear dynamical systems: Analytical concepts and empirical tools that model the temporal behavior of complex systems
Assumptions Generative mechanisms drive system evolution We can observe temporal patterns to identify
the underlying generative mechanisms Key concepts
Attractors, nonlinearity, bifurcations, chaos
NDS - Insights General insights
Types of attractors Point, periodic, chaotic, and random Type determined by # of factors & how they interact
Attractor type predictability & sensitivity Leadership insights
Limits to prediction Attractors both stabilizing and constraining Dynamical patterns exist and co-evolve across
temporal scales
NDS – Research Questions
Theoretical How do different patterns of interaction create
different types of attractors? How can purely analytical formulations inform
real-life social action? What about randomness?
Methodological How do we model evolving networks? How do we study system dynamics across
different time scales?
Emergence & leadership: Definitions
Group or team leadership as organizing patterns & emergent social structures. Agents choose between self-interest and cooperation Cooperation can lead to coordinated behaviors in routines
Agents engage in “self-transcendent construction” to enable emergence as described above. Agents are motivated be part of a larger whole Some agents enable others to “construct” an emergent order
Four levels of emergence identified. Each may involve different leadership. Networks, Groups, Hierarchy & Coordination
Emergence & leadership: Insights
Networks Leader/follower influence dyads & groupings Leaders style impacts evolution of network structure
Groups Bifurcation from self-interest to correlated action Decomposed into modular forms with hardening boundaries Styles and acts of leadership impact group stability
Hierarchy Leader roles emerge and persist Certain conditions imply formal leadership attractor dynamics and
thus potentially hierarchy Leaders recognizing self-organized patterns, both good and bad to
monitor and maintain hierarchy Coordination
Exploration versus exploitation tension Centralized versus decentralized control tension
Emergence & Leadership: Research Questions
What factors impact the strength and timing of collective bifurcation from self-interested to correlated action?
What factors influence recruitment and defection into and out of led-groups?
How do information flows impact leadership dynamics among, for example, formal, emergent and shared leadership?
Bottom-Up & Top-Down:
Definitions In complexity, order emerges from
interacting agents and their interaction with the environment Order is not imposed exogenously
Therefore, leadership is not only top-down, it is also bottom-up when interacting agents act as catalysts of bottom-up emergent structures & organizing patterns
Bottom-Up & Top-Down: Insights
Lets us see different forms of leadership not restricted to formal (managerial) roles
process that emerges informally & bottom-up a complex interactive dynamic embedded in context
Entanglement this informal, emergent leadership interacts
with administrative (managerial, bureaucratic) leadership in a manner we call entanglement
Bottom-Up & Top-Down: Research
Questions
Theoretical How do we manage entanglement? How does
top-down (i.e., hierarchical) leadership recognize and interact with bottom up leadership?
Methodological If we take leadership out of a formal
(managerial) role how do we identify what is leadership?
How do we capture the complex dynamics (e.g., context) that comprise leadership?
How do we measure bottom-up leadership?
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Definitions
Enabling Actions: Fosters conditions in which complex dynamics can emerge
Examples Foster Interaction Fosters Interdependencies Creates adaptive tension Generates adaptive rules Embraces heterogeneity
Enabling is a dynamic (i.e., mechanism) rather than an event
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Issues
Catalyst: agents, behaviors, ideas whose actions speed complex dynamics or foster elaboration
Catalysts are both products of complex interactions and productive of complex interactions
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Research Questions
Theoretical How do leaders enable conditions that foster
complex dynamics? How do leaders enable catalysts?
Methodological What are the (interactive) mechanisms by
which ideational and structural elaborations are catalyzed?
What enabling dynamics foster emergent outcomes (e.g., learning, creativity, adaptability)?
Network Leadership Dynamics: Definitions
Administrative Leadership
Adaptive Leadership
Enabling Leadership
Conditions
Emergent collective action
Learning & Adaptation
Enabling Leadership
Traditional top-down
Leadership of Context
Leadership in Process
• Relational Coupling• Requisite Variety• Organizational Form• Stress
Network Dynamics: Insights
Leadership in process Several forms of leadership (Catalysts)
Creating interactions and interdependencies- Cognitive Demand
Enhancing knowledge flows – Degree Centrality Maintaining relational coupling – Boundary Spanner Increasing the speed of learning – Closeness Centrality Communicating new knowledge – Effective Network Size
Concurrent and complex leadership dynamic Distinct leaders Shared leadership within and between forms Individual leaders can enact leadership within multiple
forms
Network Dynamics: Research
Questions What are the contextual conditions that
lead to emergent and productive collective action?
How do the various leadership forms work together and how does this complex dynamic foster emergent outcomes?
What additional variables and metrics are needed?
Innovation & ComplexityLeadership
Conceptual model of innovation based on interactions and complexity leadership
Interactions are basic unit in complex system dynamics
Specific interaction patterns can help to nurture innovation
‘Generative’ leadership directs and manages interactions to maintain balance or ‘edge of chaos’
Innovation & ComplexityLeadership
Enabling innovation requires: Increasing interactions & introducing novelty Managing complexity
Generative leaders nurture innovation by focusing on: Manipulating rules of collaboration Catalyzing the context Changing the system-environment model
Innovation and complexity leadership
A model of generative leadership: Leveraging internal and external interactions
Figure 3. Innovation dynamics leverage internal and external interactions to match predictive models to opportunities via rapid interaction and feedback
Team ATeam BTeam C
…
Team N
ExtOrg 1ExtOrg 2ExtOrg 3
…
ExtOrg M
ExternalOrganizations
InternalOrganizations
PredictiveModel
EnvironmentalOpportunity
RapidIteration
&Feedback
Innovation and Complexity Leadership – Research Questions
Theoretical- How do interactions help to nurture innovation in
complex systems? What interaction patterns enable innovation? What is the nature of leadership that enables
innovation in complex systems? Methodological
How do we model the emergence of innovation in complex systems?
How do we study complexity leadership?
Research Questions for Discussion
How do different patterns of interaction create different types of attractors?
What contextual conditions imply emergent and productive collective action?
How does top-down (i.e., hierarchical) leadership recognize and interact with bottom up patterns and leadership?
How do interactions help to nurture innovation in complex systems?
What you can do to help Ask your institutional libraries to purchase
these new Complexity Leadership Books
Actively use these ideas in you research If appropriate reference these works so people
learn about them
Respond to the CFP on new book
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