Adventures in Complexity

Prof. Holbrook from Columbia University has written excellent article titled "Adventures in Complexity: An Essay on Dynamic Open Complex Adaptive Systems, Butterfly Effects, Self-Organizing Order, Coevolution, the Ecological Perspective, Fitness Landscapes, Market Spaces, Emergent Beauty at the Edge of Chaos, and All That Jazz".

I recommend you to skim through the article to gain a better appreciation of the issues of complexity, fractal geometry, chaos theory, butterfly effect, DOCASs (Dynamic Open Complex Adaptive Systems), deep ecology, self-organization, emergence, fitness landscapes, and emergent beauty at the edge of chaos. These issues have significant implications for management and organizations in the 21st century.

Click on the address below to access the article:
http://www.amsreview.org/articles/holbrook06-2003.pdf

I hope you enjoy and become immersed in this book-long- article as much as I did. This can be a greatly rewarding intellectual adventure for you this week!

Best,
Fahri

Workshop and Brainstorming Session: Leadership and the Global Agenda in the 21st Century

Here is a summary of some of the key points we will discuss and brainstorm together in our workshop this week:

Global Complex Problems

· Half of the people, nearly 3 billion people live on less than 2$ a day.
· Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century illiterate; unable to read a book or sign their names.
· 1.3 billion have no access to clean water. 3 billion have no access to sanitation.
· Every 30 seconds; an African child dies of malaria. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day. 300 million are children.
· Every 3.6 seconds, a person dies of starvation.· Almost 100.000 people die worldwide every day from preventable diseases and because they lack the most essential needs such as water, food, shelter, sanitation and education.
· Recently; there have been bloody conflicts and wars continuing in 56 different places in the world. Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Macedonia, Middle East, Nigeria, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda.. Floods of tears and blood still flowing in many parts of the world.

In the 21st century, our world is facing complex global scale problems: War, religious intolerance, conflict, violence, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, pollution, crime, theft, fraud, murder, corruption, immortality, child abuse, human rights violation, oppression, inequality, injustice, nuclear weapons, and global terror among others.

At the Global Compact Leaders Summit on 24th of June, 2004, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: “Let us be true global citizens. Let us not rest until we have truly succeeded in bringing positive change into the lives of people, and laid the foundations for peaceful, well-functioning, sustainable societies throughout the world… Rarely has there been a moment in recent history when it has been so critical for all of us to protect our common space, building on what unites us. Again, I ask, if not us, then who?”…

A Global Agenda for Positive Universal Values for the 21st Century

The need for universal common values such as peace, dialog, cooperation, compassion is recurring themes in not only in educational and non-profit organizations but also for corporations and businesses. Today’s organizations are faced with more complexities, competition, and change than at any other time in history. To effectively cope, leaders in today’s organizations need to focus on ethics, social responsibility, collaboration, chaos, innovation, creativity, adaptation, flexibility, system thinking, relationships, and leadership.

An Emerging Paradigm based on Global Consciousness

Towards the 21st century, humanity is moving in the direction of global consciousness based on shared values. This emerging paradigm is crucial in forming a world of peace, democracy, human rights, ethics, multiculturalism and dialog. Below is a list of common global values that affirm the unity of all being; affirm the interconnectedness of all, and affirm a new bottom line of love, caring, and compassion. This list indicates an emerging global consciousness based on a set of shared values:

Economic and social justice
Golden rule: Treating others as we wish them to treat us
Respect for life, freedom and human rights
Nature-friendly ways of life and ecological consciousness
Honesty and integrity
Peace and non-violence
Multiculturalism, democracy and civic education
Tolerance, dialog and respect for diversity
Cross-cultural understanding and interfaith dialog
Cooperation, compassion and charity
Global citizenship and planetary stewardship
Self-discipline
Treating people equally without bias
Sincerity, friendship, love and sharing
Self-sacrifice, devotion and idealism
Serving humanity at large
Universal ethics, and global concern
Arts, conscious communication, reflection and conscious education,
The power of the human spirit and prayer
Spiritual practices, inner work, transcendence
Community service and social responsibility,
Inner happiness & place of the individual in the world

Academic World and Scholarship: Towards a Common Set of Values and Consciousness?

The organizational literature or scholarship has also been keeping up with this emerging trend. A literature review and a preliminary analysis reveal the emergence of a set of new approaches, models, theories, schools, and movements pointing toward an emerging global paradigm. This global paradigm is represented by the following value based approaches, movements and models:

Corporate Social Responsibility http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/csr-rse.nsf/en/Home
Organizational Citizenship Behavior http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_citizenship_behavior
Business Ethics research http://www.businessethics.ca/
Conscious Business Movement, Stakeholder Movement, research on values in management
Social Innovation research http://www.ssireview.org/
Spiritual leadership http://www.spirit4greatness.com/
Management by virtues, principle centered leadership, management by values
Service leadership, servant leadership http://www.greenleaf.org/
Human relations movement and Humanistic psychology http://www.ahpweb.org/index.html
The art of leadership http://membership.acs.org/c/cda/cufaudefinal.pdf
Business as an agent of world benefit (BAWB) http://worldbenefit.case.edu/
Positive Organizational Scholarship http://www.bus.umich.edu/Positive/
Positive Psychology http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/
Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
Integral theory perspective http://www.integralworld.net/

Check these web sites and resources above. They offer tremendous amount of knowledge that will open up your horizons. Although there are many terms used; it is possible to draw on the commonalities and to point out to an emerging paradigm in organizational scholarship. The most critical research frontiers for the twenty-first century revolve around values, ethics, morality, social responsibility, global sustainability, and spirituality. These organizational theories and concepts emphasize a set of universal values centered on sincerity, integrity, morality, respect, compassion, authenticity, intuition, and service to community.

Reflecting on the role of business on society in the 21st Century: THE CORPORATION

After viewing the Canadian documentary "The Corporation" together, I would like to invite you to reflection and brainstorming on the changing role, power, responsibilities of modern corporations on society in the 21st century.

The Corporation documentary, produced by Joel Bakan, Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, has been displayed worldwide, got more than 25 international awards and created great controversy in the world of business.

The film charted the development of the corporation as a legal entity from its origins and analyzed the "personality" of the corporate "person" by using diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization. The argued result is that the corporation is a psychopath. Do you agree?

Try to come up with a SWOT analysis of corporations and MNCs in the 21st century. What are the strenghts and weaknesses associated with them? What are the opportunities and threats ahead of us in the 21st century?

To reflect more on the issue, I recommend the resources and thinking provided at the film website: http://www.thecorporation.com/ Check the web site for ideas, projects, resources, and educational tools.

Changing Paradigms of Management and Leadership

OLD PARADIGM to NEW PARADIGM

SELF CENTERED to COMMUNITY CENTERED
ethnocentric to community oriented
individualistic to communitarian
authoritative to democratic
self-interest to service to community

OLD SCIENCES to NEW SCIENCES
Newtonian to Quantum
linear to non-linear
one truth to multiple truths
reductive to emergent

MATERIALISM to SPIRITUALITY
modernist to post-modernist
"mind" to "integration of mind, heart, soul"
positivist to interpretive
materialist to spiritual

UNIFORMITY to DIVERSITY
hierarchical to lateral
absolute perspective to contextualism
selective to inclusive
simplicity to complexity

RATIONALITY to INTUITION
actuality to potentiality
intellectual stimulation to emotional arousal
problems to opportunities
conservative to creative

PARTIAL to IMPARTIAL
atomistic to holistic
exclusionary to synergistic
analysis to synthesis
partial to integral

PROFIT ORIENTATION to PEOPLE ORIENTATION
Theory X to Theory Z
competition to cooperation
economic to social
profit oriented to triple bottom-line

CERTAINTY to UNCERTAINTY
clarity to ambiguity
order to chaos
determinate to indeterminate
stability to change

COMMAND & CONTROL to FLEXIBILITY & EMPOWERMENT
top down to egalitarian
controlling to inspiring
doubtful to trusting
domination to collaboration

CHARISMATIC to SERVANT
arrogant to humble
impressive to authentic
self-worth to modesty
extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation

OLD METAPHORS to NEW METAPHORS
clockwork/machine to brain/living ecosystem
static box to dynamic flow
solid ice to emergent cloud
building to web/network

A Self-Reflection Tool-kit for Mini-Project 1: Personal Excellence Plan

Dear Colleagues,

I will now attach for you a great resource for your Mini-Project 1, “Career Portfolio for your Dream Job". Two flagship monthly magazines in leadership development, Personal Excellence and Executive Excellence (edited by Ken Shelton) have developed a toolkit for self-reflection and personal development: “The Personal Excellence Plan”. This toolkit includes a wealth of resources and a family of tools and exercises to help you grow and progress in your career and life in the following areas: Service, Physical, Mental, Professional, Financial, Social/Emotional and Spiritual/Character.

The Personal Excellence Plan has five unique features that makes it really effective:

1. The Personal Excellence Plan honors your dreams, aspirations, faith, intuition, feelings, and emotions.
2. The Personal Excellence Plan integrates your personal life with your family and professional contribution.
3. The Personal Excellence Plan bridges vision and action.
4. The Personal Excellence Plan enables you to find harmony andsynergy among the different roles and dimensions of your life.
5. The Personal Excellence Plan encourages a balanced, holistic,value-based, principled approach to life.

Thus, I recommend you to go over this great resource and toolkit provided by Executive Excellence; the leading newsletter/magazine in the field of leadership. Feel free to print it and complete the exercises in it. This will help you tremendously in your self-reflection, self-evaluation, job application, and in constructing your own personal strategic plans.

Here is the resource; just click: http://www.eep.com/Merchant//newsite/pep.pdf

A Welcome Letter

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to MGCR 222, at McGill University (2008 Edition)! Welcome to Intensive Organizational Behavior and Management Trainee Program at your dream company.



Transdisciplinary Thinking and Visionary Brainstorming Meetings
for professionals and graduates preparing for the 21st century
in cosmopolitan and multicultural Montreal

The brand of this year’s seminar is “GL2”: “Global Learning and Global Leadership Academy”.

Our theme this year is “Global Vision, Social Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Success”.

During the course of seven weeks, we will have intensive brainstorming sessions, professional development workshops and executive training programs to help you and your colleagues to develop and apply OB knowledge as well as management and leadership skills for your career in the 21st century.

This is not a traditional course, but more a rich global learning platform and a rewarding dynamic learning network. We will not limit ourselves within a traditional discipline; instead we will have transdisciplinary, innovative and futuristic perspectives on human behavior, organizations and management.

In today’s global, rapidly changing knowledge based economy, learning about human systems and organizational behavior is one of the smartest investments you can make for your future. In this course, I am seeking professionals who are bright, passionate, willing to take initiative, care about developing themselves and yet also care about their colleagues, community, and the world.
The course draws from a new and exciting paradigm called Positive Organizational Scholarship, the core premise of which is(http://www.bus.umich.edu/Positive/) that management and leadership excellence is fundamentally tied to creating/enabling organizational contexts that build human strengths and unlock the positive and generative dynamics of vibrant human communities. We will not limit ourselves within a traditional discipline; instead we will have transdisciplinary and futuristic perspectives on human behavior, organizations and management.
This is an integrative, innovative, and interdisciplinary course. It is meant to be a transformational, positive, enriching and rewarding experience for all of us. But this all depends on our assumptions, attitudes and collective effort. If you want to gain the maximum from this experience, focus on your independent learning for your career. Be engaged and involved. Make this course useful and helpful for your own goals and life. Go beyond this class and this course. Be creative and innovative. Create breakthrough projects and ideas for the future. Sharpen your skills. Challenge yourself. Bring your best contribution to the table. Let us learn from each other. What you get from this program all depends on what you put into this.

In this course, I am seeking professionals who are bright, creative, passionate, willing to take initiative, care about developing themselves and yet also care about their colleagues, community, and the world. We will work on real-life projects to enhance the mutually beneficial partnership between the world and McGill. Our motto is creating and developing together. Welcome to our global learning network!

This beautiful city of Montreal, one of the most cosmopolitan, creative and multicultural cities in the world, is a wonderful place to explore, learn, develop, and reflect for the 21st century. McGill University is the perfect spot for learning and thinking about the 21st century global business issues as Canada's most internationally diverse university with brightest students coming from 140 countries. We are indeed lucky.

This summer, something will change in your life!

Be ready for continuous learning, creative thinking, collective visioning and collaborative working!

I wish you all the best in your future dreams and goals.