Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier [Hardcover]

Robert Axelrod (Author), Michael D Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2000

Recent advances in the study of complexity have given scientists profound new insights into how natural innovation occurs and how its power can be exploited. Now two pioneers in the field, Robert Axelrod and Michael D. Cohen, provide leaders in business and government with a guide to complexity that will help them make effective decisions in a world of rapid change.

Building on evolutionary biology, computer science, and social design, Axelrod and Cohen have constructed a unique framework for improving the way people work together. Their approach to management is based on the concept of the Complex Adaptive System, which can describe everything from rain forests to the human gene pool, and from automated software agents to multinational companies. The authors' framework reveals three qualities that all kinds of managers must cultivate in their organization:

"Variation" What is the best way to manage the development of software? Should the problem be broken up into small pieces for programmers working independently, thus enhancing variation, or should there be a centralized hierarchy of programmers ruled by a chain of command? The authors show how the decentralized creation of variation combined with the centralized maintenance of standards was the key to the success of the Linux "open source software" project, which brought together thousands of volunteers in cyberspace to produce an operating system that can outperform Microsoft's.

"Interaction" Why did northern Italy prosper while southern Italy remained poor? Recognizing the internal interactions of a Complex Adaptive System -- be it a national region, a company, or a nonprofit group -- reveals vitalnetworks of trust. Axelrod and Cohen explain that in successful adaptive systems, rich networks of horizontal linkages foster cooperation and provide an advantage over other less cooperatively networked groups. In the case of Italy, voluntary associations created networks of trust in the Middle Ages that became northern Italy's critical advantage over the south.

"Selection" Is a Pulitzer Prize better than a National Book Award? How can foundations and corporations design competitions that have a positive effect on the evolution of excellence? The authors' framework makes clear that the worst selection processes are mired in orthodox standards that have not adapted to a new environment. The best selection processes, on the other hand, are created and run by leaders who understand how the standards they use can transform their organization and its environment.

This simple, paradigm-shifting analysis of how people work together will transform the way we think about getting things done in a group. "Harnessing Complexity" is the essential guide to creating wealth, power, and knowledge in the 21st century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a world where companies are forced to adapt to an ever more quickly changing marketplace, where people from diverse backgrounds must work together in order to solve problems rapidly and the future is hard to predict, wouldn't it be wonderful if all this complexity could work to your advantage? Axelrod (The Evolution of the Corporation) and Cohen (a consultant to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center), both professors at the University of Michigan, aim to draw on the principles of evolutionary biology, computer science and social design to explain the functioning of "complex adaptive systems" (specifically businesses), and how to improve them. They explore such abstract issues as whether to encourage variation in a rapidly changing situation (whether it refers to a diversity of products or problem-solving approaches, variety is defined as "the raw material for adaptation"); the impact of manipulating interactions (with respect to time as well as both physical and conceptual space) in an organization; and how to select and support the most viable individuals, teams, systems or business strategies that emerge. Although their schematic approach and well-drawn anecdotal examples yield pragmatic insights, Axelrod and Cohen rely on somewhat idiosyncratic terminology to make their key points: "Agents of a variety of types use their strategies in patterned interaction, with each other and with artifacts" (authors' emphasis). While most managers are aware of complexity theory and are eager to learn how to adapt it to their organizations, some may be put off by the convoluted language used here. Agent, Raphael Sagalyn. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Management theorists are increasingly turning to complexity science in their search for answers to questions about organizational behavior. Axelrod and Cohen are professors of public policy. Their perspective on complexity is on building effective teams from complex groups of individuals. Axelrod is the author of the groundbreaking The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) and its follow-up, The Complexity of Cooperation (1997). Cohen has served on the external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, a leading research facility in the field of complexity. Drawing on their research done for a report on national information policy by the Highlands Forum under the aegis of the Department of Defense, the authors offer numerous business, political, and cultural applications for their model of complex adaptive systems. Clarifying the differences between complexity and chaos theories, they trace the principles of complex adaptive systems to evolutionary biology, computer science, and social design; and they outline three key processes of such systems: variation, interaction, and selection. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684867176
• ISBN-13: 978-0684867175
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #785,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Book on Getting Benefits from Complexity Science, May 7, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier (Hardcover)

HARNESSING COMPLEXITY is a breakthrough book on complexity science. It provides the first useful framework and vocabulary for evaluating complex adaptive systems, while giving you the first guidelines for considering how to use the circumstances of your complex adaptive system to your organization's advantage.

All of this is beautifully summarized in a brief concluding chapter. I suggest you begin by reading that chapter, so you will have a better idea of why you are learning what you are learning.

This approach will also be improved by keeping in mind some problem or opportunity that you want to think about in terms of complexity science as you read the book. You'll get more out of the book that way.

But do be warned that the book starts off like a typical popular book on a technical subject by academics. There are lots of references to the work of others, lots of pages of definitions, and a very long introduction. But don't be fooled; it's just laying the groundwork for enabling you to apply a new framework to your situation. But the writing is simple and clear. The examples are varied and interesting -- drawn from computer sciences, evolutionary biology and social design. One of those areas is bound to interest you.

The framework is pretty simple: Variation (we usually encourage too little of it -- that's our old friend complacency fooling us, again); Interaction (connections cause ideas and physical changes to grow in significance -- showing the importance of overcoming the communications stall); and Selection (watch the tendency to close off experimentation too quickly or to reward the wrong behavior -- avoiding the misconception and disbelief stalls).

I found that the framework immediately worked in thinking about problems that I have been considering, like how to spread the awareness of superior practices.

In fact, the framework itself is a good example of a theoretical best practice thinking exercise. I highly commend it to you.

Unfortunately, the book will appear to be too difficult and too abstract in concepts for many. I suggest the authors plan to follow this book with one more along the lines of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Complexity Harnessers (I'm sure they'll find a better title). The point is that most readers will want more help with application, and less development of the framework.

I strongly recommend this book to those who want to understand more about complexity science. The nontechnical overview is excellent. But more importantly, I strongly recommend that you try to apply the book's principles as expressed in the conclusion to your own issues, those of your organization, and those of humanity and the other species on Earth. I think this book can be a big help in speeding human-led progress.

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry to dissent, January 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier (Hardcover)

As usual, more buzzwords and hype about complexity from the self-proclaimed gurus, with praise from the gurus' co-workers at the same institutions (check the back cover for praise from people from the same places where the authors work -- no branch of science would tolerate this).

The book is 160 pages. The pages are small. The typeface is big. This "book" could easily be read in 2 hours by anyone with an interest in complex adaptive systems. I suppose that is good. But what you can read in the two hours is basically fluff. Sorry, but it is. Here's a rule "Arrange organization routines to generate a good balance between exploration and exploitation." Wonderful advice. How do you know what that balance is before you do the experiment? If the payoff for exploration is large, but the odds of success are low, then what? OK, I could build a simulation, right. How do I know that the simulation contains the necessary elements of the complex system and their interactions? (silence)

The book is a collection of platitudes that aren't much better than "look before you leap" and "he who hesitates is lost" -- there is always an addage that fits a scenario. The authors have eight scenarios that fit their addages. I'm sure we could find 80 that don't.

I expect more from these guys. Maybe the average manager at a company won't. But the average manager at a company won't gain any real sense of knowledge from this book, anymore than they would if they read the back cover praise: "You can't judge a book by its back cover"...if the people giving the praise all work at the same places as the authors. Can we cut the cronyism and publish some science? Or is it that Maynard Smith was right after all: complexity is fact-free science.

It's time for a new wardrobe for the emperor, because this clique has no clothes.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Harnessing complexity... without the harness, January 27, 2003

By 

Sean P. Kearney (Castle Rock, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier (Hardcover)

In the first paragraph of the preface of this book, Axelrod and Cohen ask, "In a world where many players are all adapting to each other and where the emergring future is extremely hard to predict, what actions should we take?" As a "reader from Boston" recommended, providing recommendations for practical application (7 Habits of Complexity?) would have helped answer this question.

Unfortunately, even the authors' anectodal examples provide little insight into HOW to "harness" complexity. While this book is primarily aimed at "designers and policy makers," it may actually be most useful to consultants looking to add new buzzwords to their bs lexicon.

I would recommend Briggs and Peats's "Seven Life Lessons of Chaos" for those who are looking for a more nuts-and-bolts approach to these issues.