Organize For Complexity

The long-awaited update for work and organizations in the knowledge age

A book about complexity and work - and about how to deal productively with both. A condensed introduction to the theory and practice of organizational high performance. A manifesto for contemporary leadership and profound transformation in organizations of all kinds. "Boldly, Pflaeging dissects classic management theory and in a well-humored manner, offers coherent alternatives." Harvard Business Review "Niels Pflaeging is the father of the end of management." Winfried Felser, competence-site "When Pflaeging shakes the dogmas of management, they crumble in his hands." Financial Times Germany "Niels Pflaeging is always right up front, where the new in business is getting measured and mapped." Peter Felixberger, changeX

“If you liked Chaos, you’ll love Complexity. Waldrop creates the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year” (The Washington Post). In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank and their radical idea is to create a new science: complexity. They want to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the first living cell—and what the origin of life some four billion years ago can tell us about the process of technological innovation today. This book is their story—the story of how they have tried to forge what they like to call the science of the twenty-first century. “Lucidly shows physicists, biologists, computer scientists and economists swapping metaphors and reveling in the sense that epochal discoveries are just around the corner . . . [Waldrop] has a special talent for relaying the exhilaration of moments of intellectual insight.” —The New York Times Book Review “Where I enjoyed the book was when it dove into the actual question of complexity, talking about complex systems in economics, biology, genetics, computer modeling, and so on. Snippets of rare beauty here and there almost took your breath away.” —Medium “[Waldrop] provides a good grounding of what may indeed be the first flowering of a new science.” —Publishers Weekly

Note about this ebook: This ebook exploits many advanced capabilities with images, hypertext, and interactivity and is optimized for EPUB3-compliant book readers, especially Apple's iBooks and browser plugins. These features may not work on all ebook readers. We organize things. We organize information, information about things, and information about information. Organizing is a fundamental issue in many professional fields, but these fields have only limited agreement in how they approach problems of organizing and in what they seek as their solutions. The Discipline of Organizing synthesizes insights from library science, information science, computer science, cognitive science, systems analysis, business, and other disciplines to create an Organizing System for understanding organizing. This framework is robust and forward-looking, enabling effective sharing of insights and design patterns between disciplines that weren’t possible before. The Professional Edition includes new and revised content about the active resources of the "Internet of Things," and how the field of Information Architecture can be viewed as a subset of the discipline of organizing. You’ll find: 600 tagged endnotes that connect to one or more of the contributing disciplines Nearly 60 new pictures and illustrations Links to cross-references and external citations Interactive study guides to test on key points The Professional Edition is ideal for practitioners and as a primary or supplemental text for graduate courses on information organization, content and knowledge management, and digital collections. FOR INSTRUCTORS: Supplemental materials (lecture notes, assignments, exams, etc.) are available at http://disciplineoforganizing.org. FOR STUDENTS: Make sure this is the edition you want to buy. There's a newer one and maybe your instructor has adopted that one instead.

History is full of stories of the oppressed rebelling against the oppressor, only to reinstate an equally oppressive system. What we learn from oppression is how to oppress. If we want a truly transformative politics, then we must take up methods that embody the kind of world we want to create; we have to change deeply embedded beliefs and behaviours. In this engaging and passionate book, long-time community organizer Joan Kuyek offers important insights and concrete tools to encourage people to get involved in social justice action at the community level. In Canada, activists are frustrated with their inability to effect change in the global economic system, overwhelmed by the number and complexity of issues and too often unaware or dismissive of the efforts of other activists. As a result, social forces for justice and the environment are fragmented and ineffective, and the economic elite grows more powerful. Community Organizing argues that it does not have to be this way. Suggesting that most of our attempts at change and community-building fail because we cannot get along with each other, Community Organizing starts at the community level to describe how we can work together and create organizations based on dignity and respect. It provides strategies to build movements from the community to assert democratic political power and tools to create a culture of hope in this time of despair. This book offers the means to reclaim political power in Canada.

99 simple activities, concepts, encouragements, ideas, tips and tricks that an individual can use (without management approval!) to improve their organization. The original definition of entrepreneurship is "creative destruction." (Joseph Schumpeter, 1942). Famed management consultant Peter Drucker said, "the entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes." This is important to hold in mind when you consider the future of work and the emergent version of your workflows, your culture and your company. The intrapreneur acts in exactly the same way inside the organization as the entrepreneur does out in the marketplace. They seek to move out in all directions, beyond their job title, to change, upgrade, and energize everything, where they can. They do so through experimentation, placing small bets, working collaboratively through networks, with courage and curiosity to the fore. The intrapreneur disorganizes their company. To do so is exciting and fun, but also challenging and tiring. Disorganizers need encouragement, direction, concepts and activities. And this book is here to help: 99 simple tips, tricks, ideas and encouragements that will help you make a bigger difference at work. Guaranteed! Some of what you will read about: Creative destruction - creative tension - working out loud - edge work - manifestos - curiosity and focus - FUQs - Sturgeon's Law - selling - X is the new Y - challenge and change - seekers - failing forward - remixing - shticks - power poses - antifragility - 80:20 - Kryptonite - modern art - battles - kith and kin - ambiguity - insights - blowing shit up - job titles and descriptions - Rocky - learning and unlearning - emergence - coffee - working backwards - serendipity - design thinking - improv - efficiency - meandering - small pieces, loosely joined - sticky notes - respect - thinking advantage - storytelling - asking questions - trust - hustle & flow - studio 20 - the flâneur - disagreeable givers - hiring advice - echo chambers - getting to "Yes!" - connecting everything - a peasant's heart - smashing the like button - having fun - This Much We Know. Let's go disorganize!

The Intelligence Advantage makes available a new understanding of the way that human beings create organizations. Ideas recently made available through advances in philosophy, science, technology and communication are investigated. These advances foster insight into ways of organizing productive activity that is consistent with the nature of human beings and society. Complexity is becoming a common word in business literature. Mike McMaster blends complexity with post-modern thought and the work of the interdisciplinary group called the Santa Fe Institute to provide useful, understandable metaphors and analogies, as well as practical design principles and effective management and work practices. Provides a sense of clarity about what organizations are, how they operate and the kind of thinking that is called for to sustain their survival. Explores the many possibilities of organizations. Written in a lively, down-to-earth style.

Over 100,000 Copies Sold! Organizing books fall short of addressing the unique needs of adults with ADD. They fail to understand the clinical picture of ADD and how it impacts the organizing process often making their advice irrelevant or frustrating when put into application. Books about ADD may address organization/disorganization but do so in a cursory fashion and on a very small scale in what are usually long books on the subject. This is a book that has ADD-Friendly advice with the ADDer in mind. This collaboration brings forth the best underlying understanding with the most effective and practical remedy from ADD experts in two important fields -- professional organization and clinical psychology. Finally, it offers organizing advice that ranges from self-help to utilizing the help of non-professionals, to using professional assistance. Thus it permits the reader to decide where they are at personally in the organizing process, and what level of support will be most beneficial to their unique situation.