Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

by Aaron Dignan

All living systems, at some level, are information processors. Starve any living thing of information and it will quickly perish. Professor Melanie Mitchell defines a complex adaptive system as “a system in which large networks of components with no central control and simple rules of operation give rise to complex collective behavior, sophisticated information processing, and adaptation via learning or evolution.” In this way, a complex adaptive system is a kind of hive mind, capable of solving problems the individual agents cannot. Organizations are no different. Every single activity we conduct at work—recruiting, sales, accounting—is dependent on information processing and knowledge transfer. If we can tap into our collective intelligence, we can accomplish amazing things. And so it’s somewhat surprising how little time we spend on our information architecture—our approach to discovering, storing, and sharing what we know.