roger lewin-and-birute-regine-power point (1)
TRANSCRIPT
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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