Complexity & Innovation in Organizations

Rating:
Summary: Organizations as relationships and patterns of meaning
Review: This book is part of a series of books related to complexity and management. The "core" book in the series is Complexity and Management by Stacey, Griffin and Shaw. I think this book by Jose Fonseca is more about the emergence of meaning from conversation than it is about innovation. But perhaps that is what innovation is. An organization is a pattern of relationships among people. People have conversations. A conversation is a pattern of thoughts out of which meaning can emerge. Conversations are fractal in that we have conversations within our own heads, and with others, and in a sense departments have conversations with other departments and organizatons have relationships (and therefore conversations) with one another. Fonseca believes that misunderstandings and redundancy contribute to the discovery of new meanings and to innovation. There is enough "meat" in this book to make it worth my while.

Rating:
Summary: Organizations as relationships and patterns of meaning
Review: This book is part of a series of books related to complexity and management. The "core" book in the series is Complexity and Management by Stacey, Griffin and Shaw. I think this book by Jose Fonseca is more about the emergence of meaning from conversation than it is about innovation. But perhaps that is what innovation is. An organization is a pattern of relationships among people. People have conversations. A conversation is a pattern of thoughts out of which meaning can emerge. Conversations are fractal in that we have conversations within our own heads, and with others, and in a sense departments have conversations with other departments and organizatons have relationships (and therefore conversations) with one another. Fonseca believes that misunderstandings and redundancy contribute to the discovery of new meanings and to innovation. There is enough "meat" in this book to make it worth my while.