Events

Managing in Complexity Series

This series features speakers well-versed on the ideas of complexity theory and organisational management. They will share how organisations and leaders can better make sense and react in a world of great complexity and uncertainty, as well as how best to organise themselves and their organisations to be ready for future challenges.

22 & 23 April 2008
Dr Pierpaolo Andriani
Dr Andriani is Senior Lecturer in Technology Management from the Durham Business School UK. His current research focuses on the theory of Complexity as an interpretative framework and on its application to industrial clusters and New Product Development in distributed environments. Dr Andriani will be in Singapore to deliver a series of focused seminars for selected public sector agencies.

Why the Future Happens: Socionomics and the Science of Surprise
13 September 2007

Dr John L. Casti
Co-Founder of The Kenos Circle and Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Wien

Collective human social events, such as the outcome of political elections, trends in film and fashion, the outbreak of war and the rise and fall of civilisations, are generated by a population’s changing social mood, and these changes in mood follow patterns that are predictable. This fact has led to the emerging field of socionomics, which is nothing less than a “science of surprise”.

In this lecture, popular author and mathematician Dr. Casti presented the story behind the development of socionomics and how it seeks The lecture examined the relationship between thoughts, actions and events, the phenomenon of herding instincts, and how bets people place about the future self-organise into an overall collective social mood.to forecast social trends, through the use of numerous examples and stories. See Lecture Notes.

Dr Casti has had a wide-ranging career experience, having served on the faculties of the University of Arizona, New York University and Princeton, and at the RAND Corporation.

Complexity and Network Theory: Basic Key Concepts and Their Applications
26 July 2007

Lam Chuan Leong
Senior Fellow, CGL and Ambassador-At-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

This 101-style workshop is an introduction to the world of cognition and complexity and the developments and current thinking in this field. It will be followed with other events and speakers, which will go more in-depth into specific aspects of complexity. Mr Lam’s workshop will serve as an excellent foundation for those with an interest in complexity and management. Some of the topics include:

• the role of cognition -- pattern recognition and selective perception;
• the functioning of complex organisations, and how organisations can best function in a complex environment;
• how to influence and change behaviour in a complex environment; and
• the network effect and its impact on the Singapore Economy

Exploration and Experimentation: The Organisational Imperative
21 March 2007

Max Boisot
Professor of Strategic Management at the Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

Governments and businesses face massive uncertainty about the effects of their actions. Outcome is seldom the same as intent. Conventional strategic planning and economic forecasting models-based on the assumptions of causality, control and prediction-are often too mechanistic and fail to capture the complexities of the economy and society. Successful innovations or good policies are rarely the result of superior foresight or accurate prediction. Instead, they are often the result of learning-by-doing, constant experimentation, and flexible adaptation.

This roundtable explored the limits of traditional planning approaches in an uncertain, inherently unpredictable world. It will also propose frameworks to guide our organisational learning and knowledge management practices in a way that builds organisational resilience and adaptability.

Session Summary of Roundtable
Slides from Prof Boisot