Real Time Organizational Modeling

[John Hellier]

Phil,

Actually, it is not about confidence in modeling so much as trying to find a way to
understand an organization. To see how it is really working. Having worked for large (Cisco, NT), small
(biotech and start-up) and government both state and federal, I see the same problem, how the
organization works is a mystery. It is a black box to the decision makers. I as a decision maker
whether manager, project lead or CEO have very little insight into how my organization is working.
How can I make an informed decision based on such limited and frequently unvalidated information?
I will but it is a far from optimum decision. One that could sink my organization. Or maybe because
I don't have the information I won't make the big decision on anything. Which again may sink my organization.
I'm just hoping that my competition has the same reservations.

I'm not looking to magically solve the problem by using models. I hope to be able to offer some help in
clearing the chaos that we call organizations today. Modeling may be help. Small steps.

It is not about rules either. The biggest failing in IT is discounting the human element. I would like
to create tools that help the individual to be clearer in their actions and to be able to focus on the creative side
and leave the drone work to a machine.  There is a balance required though and the human will have to
adapt a bit and I don't mean being comfortable using Windows(Wrong direction!).  I see the tools more
as universal translators that make the intentions and expectations of all the participants clear(er).

I've been a software engineer for fair number of years. I'm currently working up in Los Alamos on software projects
that attempt to get scientists and engineers to communicate.

John Hellier

----- Original Message ----
From: Phil Henshaw <[hidden email]>
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:08:40 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Real Time Organizational Modeling

John, I'm not sure what your background is, but I've been surprised by
what high confidence people here put in modeling, and how little
discussion of modeling strategies there is.  I doubt there's any useful
modeling method for organizations, since what animates them are the
currents of human ideas, not rules.   What distinguishes between an
email addressing a critical issue that simply goes dead and engages no
one, and an email addressing trivial matters that becomes everyone's
reference for a while, is completely unknown.


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    

> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Hellier
> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 7:58 PM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: [FRIAM] Real Time Organizational Modeling
>
>
> Is anyone working on Real Time Organizational Modeling where
> the model continually evolves based on changes in the
> organization. All members of the organization contribute to
> the changes even down to the creation of an email, how the
> email contents affect the organization and how the recipients
> respond to the email.  What I am looking for is the encoding
> of an organization such that as someone creates an email, an
> observer can watch this happening in the model and see the effect.
> Maybe the email has little or no impact or maybe it has a
> growing ripple effect.
>
> This model should have a view of the entire organization
> including tracking all actions performed.  I realize that
> trying to capture everything is a bit daunting but if
> possible it could yield incredible insight into how
> organizations work. I generally feel that most decisions made
> in organizations are made with such limited information that
> it is amazing that most organizations don't fail. Or is that
> they are a lot less brittle than one might imagine.
>
> I know that there is quite a bit of work done in more bit
> size pieces. I'm mainly interested in the much larger task of
> taking a company of 40K and tracking every action and
> interaction. And then by extension, actions connected outside
> of the organization. I know, huge, maybe impossible. Is there
> a way to adapt social networking
> concepts to an organization to help model it?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
> John Hellier
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Phil Henshaw-2]

Well, the only rigorous general method I know of for exposing the
detailed structure and steering potentials for individual complex system
events is described in "easy to mark", posted yesterday.  

Studying individual events requires substantially reforming the methods
of science that were built for representing classes of similiar events
as following the same formula.  


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    

> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Hellier
> Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 5:19 PM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Real Time Organizational Modeling
>
>
> Phil,
>
> Actually, it is not about confidence in modeling so much as
> trying to find a way to understand an organization. To see
> how it is really working. Having worked for large (Cisco,
> NT), small (biotech and start-up) and government both state
> and federal, I see the same problem, how the organization
> works is a mystery. It is a black box to the decision makers.
> I as a decision maker
> whether manager, project lead or CEO have very little insight
> into how my organization is working.
> How can I make an informed decision based on such limited and
> frequently unvalidated information?
> I will but it is a far from optimum decision. One that could
> sink my organization. Or maybe because
> I don't have the information I won't make the big decision on
> anything. Which again may sink my organization. I'm just
> hoping that my competition has the same reservations.
>
> I'm not looking to magically solve the problem by using
> models. I hope to be able to offer some help in clearing the
> chaos that we call organizations today. Modeling may be help.
> Small steps.
>
> It is not about rules either. The biggest failing in IT is
> discounting the human element. I would like to create tools
> that help the individual to be clearer in their actions and
> to be able to focus on the creative side and leave the drone
> work to a machine.  There is a balance required though and
> the human will have to adapt a bit and I don't mean being
> comfortable using Windows(Wrong direction!).  I see the tools
> more as universal translators that make the intentions and
> expectations of all the participants clear(er).
>
> I've been a software engineer for fair number of years. I'm
> currently working up in Los Alamos on software projects that
> attempt to get scientists and engineers to communicate.
>
> John Hellier
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Phil Henshaw <sy at synapse9.com>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> <friam at redfish.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:08:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Real Time Organizational Modeling
>
> John, I'm not sure what your background is, but I've been
> surprised by what high confidence people here put in
> modeling, and how little discussion of modeling strategies
> there is.  I doubt there's any useful modeling method for
> organizations, since what animates them are the
> currents of human ideas, not rules.   What distinguishes between an
> email addressing a critical issue that simply goes dead and
> engages no one, and an email addressing trivial matters that
> becomes everyone's reference for a while, is completely unknown.
>
>
> Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> NY NY 10040                      
> tel: [phone]                
> e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> explorations: www.synapse9.com    
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> > [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Hellier
> > Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 7:58 PM
> > To: friam at redfish.com
> > Subject: [FRIAM] Real Time Organizational Modeling
> >
> >
> > Is anyone working on Real Time Organizational Modeling where
> > the model continually evolves based on changes in the
> > organization. All members of the organization contribute to
> > the changes even down to the creation of an email, how the
> > email contents affect the organization and how the recipients
> > respond to the email.  What I am looking for is the encoding
> > of an organization such that as someone creates an email, an
> > observer can watch this happening in the model and see the effect.
> > Maybe the email has little or no impact or maybe it has a
> > growing ripple effect.
> >
> > This model should have a view of the entire organization
> > including tracking all actions performed.  I realize that
> > trying to capture everything is a bit daunting but if
> > possible it could yield incredible insight into how
> > organizations work. I generally feel that most decisions made
> > in organizations are made with such limited information that
> > it is amazing that most organizations don't fail. Or is that
> > they are a lot less brittle than one might imagine.
> >
> > I know that there is quite a bit of work done in more bit
> > size pieces. I'm mainly interested in the much larger task of
> > taking a company of 40K and tracking every action and
> > interaction. And then by extension, actions connected outside
> > of the organization. I know, huge, maybe impossible. Is there
> > a way to adapt social networking
> > concepts to an organization to help model it?
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > John Hellier
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures,
> > archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>