Excerpts Organizational Intelligence The World of Theory Intelligence by Design The Learning Loop Hearts and Minds New Attributes of Behavior Preludes Questions Sections

Excerpts from Chapter 1 of The Intelligence Advantage Excerpts: Next | Previous Prelude COMPLEXITY AND INTELLIGENCE Complexity is a way of seeing things that transforms the chaotic and complicated into something simple and amenable to understanding. Complexity is a burgeoning new field of study in the world of science. It is concerned with the phenomena that occur when systems are beyond linear understanding, beyond simple cause/effect, and beyond particular analysis, but have not yet "spilled over" into the area of chaos. Complexity has been described as "at the edge of chaos." In this state, patterns can be seen and even understood, but the rich interplay of individual elements cannot be reduced to individual elements. This area has great significance because it is the area of most information. It is also robust and viable while not being a place that can be located by formula. Nobody knows exactly where "the edge of chaos" is. Seeing phenomena through the lens of complexity continuously brings more of the unknown and unmanageable into the realm of adaptation and innovation. If developed, this approach continually claims space from chaos and uncertainty and increases the amount of information that a system is able to handle effectively. We can think of complexity as extending further and further into the unknown in developmental stages. As mastery is attained "at the edge," the "edge" moves further out from the center; just as your ability to master new concepts or skills expands, so too the already-mastered base expands. Similarly, when you discover something about yourself, new possibilities open for another level of discovery. For the purpose of understanding organizational intelligence, there is another term from complexity theory that will be very useful to understand. It is the concept of "emergence." Our operational definition of emergence is "a phenomenon that occurs out of the interplay of forces, information or energy being channeled through a system composed of a few basic principles (or 'attractors') and beyond a threshold point of containment. This interplay results in an identifiable phenomenon of rich variety and expression." INFORMATION THEORY AND INTELLIGENCE Our everyday understanding of information is that it is the part of communication that is most specific, has no ambiguity, and is clear. Information theory and communication theory tell us something different. Our operational definition of information is "that part of communication that resolves uncertainty." There is the highest information value when the ambiguity is the greatest, and the communication (eventually) resolves that ambiguity in the most surprising way. To the degree that a communication is predictable, it carries the least information value. Questions to this chapter Excerpts: Next | Previous