Roger Lewin & Birute Regine

Complexity Science

People

&

Organizations

St Luke’s Advertising Agency

London

Andy Law, founder and chairman:

“This industry is driven by ego and greed.”

David Abraham, co-founder and COO:

“This industry is run by money-grubbing, mealy-mouthed liars.”

Campaign: an editorial in the January 1998 issue:

“St Luke’s sets itself up as an easy target for critics.” Its distinctly

unusual way of working, and its claims to be guided by ethics, “can

smack of pretension and insufferable preciousness.”

The same year, Campaign voted the young St Luke’s as The

Agency of the Year.

It also credited St Luke’s with “coming up with some of the most rule-breaking campaigns on either

side of the Atlantic.”

No one had a personal desk, not even the CEO.

Transformation of the pitch-generating process from linear to nonlinear.

Three results from nonlinear working:

The process is much faster

Enhanced creativity

The result is more daring

“Everyone is brilliant….just give them a chance and everyone will do brilliant

things.”

Pitt County Memorial Hospital

Greenville, North Carolina

From: Measured pace, follow the rules,

do your job

To:Speed, flexibility, adaptability,

figure out what needs to be done, do it

“Crisis brings out the best in people….There is something about being in the crucible together that melts the barriers than can exist between individuals and groups

inside and outside your organization.”

Dave McRae, CEO

“My relationship to people in my department has changed. Now there’s a lot of comradery and pulling together

kind of attitude that wasn’t there before. We can do things now that

previously we never dreamed could be possible. What I think helped to get that feeling was getting to know the

people I work with in a personal way.”Pam Payne, pharmacist

“For some period of time everybody forgot all the stuff that

they had learned as part of the job, and just did what they had to do, coming up with the unexpected, and enjoying it. They’d forget the clock and do miracles. It was a

peak experience.”

Bob Shapiro, former CEO, Monsanto

What does this have to do with complexity science and business?

Complex Adaptive Systems:diversity of agents

mutual interactions

decentralized control

self-organization

emergence of novelty

adaptability

Biological realm:immune system

termite communities

ecosystems

the brain

The Human Realm:Any time you have a group of people mutually engaged in a common goal

…that is, organizations of any kind, large and small

Businesses are complex adaptive systems

In Complex Adaptive Systems:

Interaction among agents is the source of creativity and adaptability of the system

In business, this translates to:Relationships among people is

the source of creativity and adaptability of organizations

St Luke’s: the physical environment

Pitt: allow self-organization

Two ways to enhance interactions:

Bottom line from a complexity perspective:

Relationships

People want to be seen as people

It’s an old idea…..

…..but now there’s ascience behind it…...

Complexity Science

The challenge for coaches:

Help clients enhance frequency of interactions among their people

Help clients handle the uncertaintyassociated with this way of working

It’s not just what we do…

…but how we do it

What does this have to dowith complexity science?

Coaches who attend to the quality of relationships among people in the

workplace will enhance the performance of their clients’

organizations

“I am

because

we are”

Roger Lewin & Birute Regine

Harvest-Associates.comIronButterflies.com

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