Humanity, technology and the complexity threshold

I believe that complexity is in the eye of the observer and controller.  I believe that God created everything for the benefit of humanity.
 
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

People have a complexity threshold. 

When we make decisions we are ruling over something.  Therefore, complexity is likely most relevant at the point of decision.  I define complexity as the number of things that are relevant at any given moment.  Typically the moment is that moment of decision.  However, it could be a moment of analysis where we are observing to discover that which is true, which then puts us into the complexity equation because we are now observing, which could influence the confluence of interdependencies.   Humanity creates technology to increase their complexity threshold.

A natural design to human organizational existence

This BLOG is about asking “Why Organization Ontologics”. I have decided that the most fundamental answer is: There is a natural design to human organizational existence.

Organizations emerge from the culture of humanity to provide offerings that express the enthusiasm that exists for meeting targeted needs of targeted beneficiaries. Typically there are many stakeholders (people, groups, and other entities) that have a vested interest in the success of the organization.

Organizations…

• are formed by the will of, consist of, and provide for the sake of people;
• derive life from the people of the organization, their relationships, and their commitments to the health of the organization;
• derive authority from owners and governing authorities;
• have unique identities yet the same essential natural design;
• are composed of living systems that support the motivations of becoming, being, doing, relating, and sustaining through the intentional participation of people in the system disciplines of maturation, simulation, realization, conversation, and maintenance

People…

• form, support, and benefit from organizations
• are the life force of organizations; the dictionary defines Life as: A source of vitality; an animating force; energy or enthusiasm; the sum total of human existence, relationships, and activities. Life is about Being, Doing, Relating, sustaining, and becoming with enthusiasm
• deposit or withdraw life
• who bring enthusiasm for serving others, deposit life into the organization
• who participate only to serve themselves, withdraw life from the organization
• shoulder the burden of keeping the organization alive and healthy

Human beings are endowed with an awareness of the requirements of organizational existence and have the intrinsic ability to shoulder the responsibility for the autonomic functions of the organization. The life and health of an organization thrive or suffer with the level of intentionality with which the people perform the work of organization.

Sources of Authority

• God Given Individual Freedom

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence)

• Cultural Acceptance or Tolerance

Informal and implied authority which is derived from the acceptance by the people who benefit from the offerings of an organization. Cultural tolerance doesn’t contribute authority directly; however, it leaves room for an organization to exist.

• Governments (Federal, State, County, Local, Family)

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” (The Constitution of the United States of America)

Metaphorical Understanding

An organization being is a form of human existence and like a human being exists in a natural design. Human autonomics is part of the natural design of human existence and is responsible for the functions of the human life cycle, life, and health that the person can take for granted, i.e., the body matures, the respiratory system breaths and the circulatory system pumps blood, and the immune system protects the body from foreign substances.

Organization Ontologics is the portion of organization existence responsible for the autonomics of the organization’s life cycle, life, and health.

To understand the value of knowing Organization Ontologics, think of how top athletes maximize their performance by learning to cooperate with the natural design of their human existence. In the same way organizations can achieve their highest levels of performance by cooperating with the natural design of their organization existence

Organization Natural Design

The natural design of organization existence fundamentally consists of beings, assets, and supplies that are organized into work fractals that are organized into holons that are organized into holarchies that are interconnected by holnets, that form organization beings and holagents that are organized into valuenets.

• Beings are people or organizations that are assigned to take responsibility for the work of producing work products.
• Assets are reusable things that shoulder responsibility for portions of the work of producing work products.
• Supplies are consumable things that are required by the beings, assets, and work products.
• Work Products are the result of a work fractal and take the form of qualified beings, qualified assets, or qualified supplies.
• Work Fractals perform the work of an organization, they consist of qualified beings respecting constraints filling roles performing activities using qualified assets and consuming qualified supplies for the production of work products (internal or external).
• Holons are sets of work fractals responsible for producing internal or external work products.
• Holarchies are hierarchical dependency structures of holons and associated work products.
• Holnets are the connecting structures that facilitate the exchange of internal offerings within the boundaries of the organization being.
• Holagents are organization beings that are formed to facilitate the exchange of offerings between organization beings.
• Valuenets are the set of organization beings and their interdependent relationships (holagents) that meet the needs of human beings and organization beings.

Socio-Economic-Ecosystem

• Socio-: Social interaction is based on the application of enthusiasm for the meeting of the fundamental needs of human beings and organization beings.
• Economic: The exchange of value that occurs in the expression of enthusiasm for the meeting of human and organization needs and the admission of those needs, forms the basis of all economies.
• Ecosystem: The many interdependent relationships of a community of people and organizations and their environments functioning as an ecological unit.
• Valuenet: The total of all socio-economic-ecosystems form the humanity valuenet. Each socio-economic-ecosystem is derived from a fundamental need and is referred to as [fundamental need] valuenet, i.e., Housing Valuenet, Entertainment Valuenet. Preferences for the meeting of needs form [preference] valuenets, i.e., Vacation Homes Valuenet, Video Games Valuenet.

Life comes before health

When organizations run a project to implement technology they expect a healthier organization as a result.  However, many organizations experience worse performance with the new technology than they had with the old.  With Organization Ontologics (O2) it is apparent that life comes before health in any organization.  The life of an organization can be measured by the number of people, their relationships, and their commitments to the health of the organization.  The health of an organization can be measured by the level of O2 Intentionality, which will be introduced in a future blog post.  A project to implement a new technology takes the organization on a journey of change from the current configuration enabled by the legacy technology to the future configuration enabled by the new technology.  For the organization to be healthier after a project is run, the people must be willing and capable of performing the assigned work using the new technology according with the defined requirements.  The future organization requires both life and health.

 

To give life to the future organization the project must involve  the people who will be working in it in the development of the requirements, the configuration, and the technology.  The project must respect  that the people of the organization have relationships that are intertwined in its current configuration and workings of the legacy technology.  The project must prepare the people and their relationships to move their allegiance from the current organization to the future organization.  The current configuration of the organization and its legacy technology is familiar to the people.  By nature people will do what they know and follow the path of least resistance.   For the organization to be healthier after the project than before, the people must know and understand the future configuration and the new technology, which must provide an easier path to performing assigned work for better results than the current configuration.  The people of the organization must be shown respect and asked if they would be willing to embrace the requirements of the future configuration and the new technology.  They must be shown that they will be educated and trained so they will capable of knowing and understanding the future configuration with its new technology.  They will need to be informed of the reasons for replacing the current configuration with the future technology.   Finally, the people of the organization must be asked to commit to the future configuration and its new technology.

  

Life without health has no place to live.  Health without life is just a pile of assets.  Life and health, both are required.

Manage Risks More Intentionally

Change is a constant in every organization.  Change is a combination of four things, 1) Keep, 2) Add, 3) Modify, and 4) Retire.  Change is accomplished through projects.  There are five reasons to run a project, 1) resolve an issue, 2) mitigate a risk, 3) improve a process, 4) change a relationship, and 5) become something next.  Most projects combine two or more of these reasons.  Today’s uncertain economy threatens the operation of just about every organization on the planet.  So, let’s consider running a project that mitigates the risk of insufficient funds to continue current operations. 

 

If your funds decline you must reduce expenses.  This means you must be ready to decide where you will cut expenses and why.  Do you take a 10% cut across the board?  Do you sell a division?  Do you ask everyone to take a cut in pay?  Do you increase or decrease prices?  The project to mitigate the risk of a decline in funds could be to add the capability to make these kinds of decisions with a greater ability to understand the truth of the circumstances and predict the consequence of the decisions.  Having the capability to confidently make the needed decisions and explain the rationale can go a long way to realizing the needed benefits.

 

Organization Ontologics, which is the study of the naturally occurring principles and patterns of human organizational existence, offers much to this risk mitigation project.  The Principle of Decision: Clear context leads to confident decisions, provides the requirements for the organizational capability that can mitigate this risk.  List the contexts that inform the types of decisions that may be required if there is a decline in funds.  Create an operational model and a corresponding financial model with planning assumptions that represent each context and each type of decision.  Review these models with your leadership and management teams and let their life experience tune your list of contexts and types of decisions and the values you assign to the planning assumptions.  Organization Ontologics allows you to add the capability to analyze more intentionally the natural design of your organization given the truth of your circumstances.

 

Why Organization Ontologics?  To better manage the risks of today’s economy.