Emergence: What it is and How it can be applied to Organizational Theory and Practice

1. Emergence: What it is and How it can be applied to Organizational Theory and Practice Society for Chaos Theory Annual Conference 2017 Jeffrey Goldstein, Ph.D. Adelphi University

2. Right now it's only a notion, but I think I can get the money to make it into a concept, and later turn it into an idea. - Woody Allen

3. Alan Turing (1952): “[morphogenesis] is developing from one pattern to another, not from homogeneity into a pattern”

7. 1994

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13. TENSEGRITY IN K. SNELSON’S SCULPTURE

14. EXAMPLES OF EMERGENCE life consciousness speciation project teams multi-organisms artificial life the Internet magnetism superfluidity superconductivity additional computational functionality dissipative structures optimal options prices perception of color attractors and their basins drug interactions leadership behavior software “bugs” temperature cities wars scientific revolutions Benard cells creative ideas giant graph clusters organizational innovation

15. Sources of the idea of Emergence Philosophical Speculation

16. Characteristics of emergent phenomena (if the phenomenon in question possesses these characteristics then it is sure bet it is an emergent phenomenon, generated by processes/operations of emergence. • Characteristics are interrelated • Radically Novel/Explanatorily Gappy • Uncomputable (unpredictable, nondeductible, irreducible) • Ostensive • Coherent/Collective/Integrated/ (Gillett: machresis) • Dynamical • Self-transcending Constructional (“stc”)

17. 2 Aspects of Emergence: 1. EMERGENCE IN GENERAL 2. EMERGENCE IN ORGANIZATIONS

18. THREE PHASES OF EMERGENTISM • (Precursors: Mill, Lewes, Bergson, Sellars…) • Proto-emergentism ~ 1910 – 1940 • Midphase-emergentism~ 1940 – 1970 • Mod-emergentism ~ 1970 - present

19. Galen (129-200AD): For anything constituted out of many things will be the same sort of thing the constituents happen to be, should they continue to be such throughout; it will not acquire any novel characteristic from outside, one that did not also belong to the constituents. But if the constituents were altered, transformed, and changed in manifold ways, something of a different type could belong to the composite that did not belong to the elements… Consequently, something heterogenous cannot come from elements that do not change their qualities. But it is possible from ones that do…Therefore, it is necessary that that which is going to sense be constituted either (i) from first elements capable of sensation or (ii) from ones incapable of sensation, but naturally such as to change and alter. (Galen, On the Elements according to Hippocrates, 1.3, 70.15–25, 72.19–21, 74.14–17, trans. Caston, 1997, pp. 355–7; my italics)22; in Ganeri, p. 688.)

20. THREE PHASES OF EMERGENTISM • (Precursors: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Galen, J. S. Mill, G. H. Lewes, Henri Bergson, W. Sellars, Wm. James,--[Gifford Lectures) • Proto-emergentism ~ 1910 – 1940 • C. L. Morgan, Samuel Alexander, C. D. Broad, W. • Wheeler, John Bodin, Arthur Lovejoy, Oliver Reiser… • 2. Midphase-emergentism~ 1940 – 1970 • Karl Popper, J. H. Woodger, Joseph Needham, Conrad Hall Waddington, Alan Turing (Morphogenesis), Michael Polanyi, von Bertalanffy, Alfred North Whitehead, • 3. Mod-emergentism ~ 1970 – present • Roger Sperry; Ilya Prigogine; Hermann Haken; Paul Humphreys, Philip Andersen, David Pines, Robert Laughlin, Margaret Morrison, Robert Batterman, Complexity Scientists in General

21. Source of the Idea of Emergence: 19th-20th C’s Lewes “emergents

22. Mod-Emergence and Complexity (20th/21st C’s) • Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Bifurcation and New Attractors • Phase Transitions • Self-organization in Physical Systems • Artificial Life • Agent-based Modeling • Social-Psych. Experiments • Biological Emergence: Evolution, Symbiogenesis, Genetic Programming… • Solid State Phenomena, superconductivity…

23. Examples of Self-organizing Systems Benard Convection Cells -- Prigogine

24. Various Types of Self-organizing Convection Cells

25. Self-organizing Turing Reaction/Diffusion Patterns

27. TENSEGRITY IN K. SNELSON’S SCULPTURE

28. SOURCES OF EMERGENT ORDER CONSTRAINTS AND CONTAINERS • Strength and resilience of pasta • Stickiness of the pasta (box was open for a long time in cabinet above stove) • Stickiness of stove top (food, leftover, oil) • Containing effect of stove top surface and electric coils • Gravitational Force • Impetus-- falling askew leaning on inside of cabinet door SELF-ORGANIZATION IS A VERY INCOMPLETE EXPLANATION

29. Processes of Emergence Must be powerful enough to generate phenomena with the characteristics of emergent phenomena: unpredictable; non-deducible; ostensive;coordinated; radically novel; self-transcendent THIS IS A VITAL CLUE AS TO WHAT SUCH PROCESSES MUST INVOLVE

30. Rosen’s Non-formalizability Reiser’s Transfinite Aggregates Bennett’s Logical Depth Cohen’s/Stewart’s Existence Theorem for Emergent Phenomena Self- transcending Constructurings Fontana’s and Buss’s Computational Constructions Holland’s Sets of Equations that Change Cardinality Crutchfield’s Calculi of Emergence Piaget’s Logico-Mathematical Constructions

31. Self-transcending Constructurings (STC) • Pejorative Expression for Anti-diagonalization But I Use it with a Positive Connotation: • Mathematically and Logically: An Operation which Follows a Rule Generating an Intersection of Two Different Frames of Reference, then Negates what it Follows • The Key Operations: Following, Differences, Negation:Anacoluthian • The Outcome is Radically Novel – hence its role in Emergence

32. Self-transcending Constructurings (STC) • Constrained Generativity-- Free Act of Creation Bounded by Boundary Conditions, Containers and Constraints • Can be Both Intentional and Non-Intentional • Integrates Design and Spontaneity • Involve Constructions, not Subjugation to some Supposedly Natural Process • Are Not Opposed by an Opposing Force (e.g., entropy increase from 2nd Law) • Flirt with But Do Not Embrace Paradox

33. HYBRIDIZATION IN SYMBIOGENESIS (Margulis) • Recombination: Swapping Of Functions • Wholes become Parts • New Fitting- togetherness

34. Recombination/Hybridization in the Workplace • Cross-functional teams • Cross-level (hierarchy) teams • Bringing the Outside Inside (e.g., bring customers and suppliers inside) • Taking the Inside Outside (e.g. going out to customers where they live, going out to suppliers where they work)

35. Serendipity as the key to innovation: Discovery of something new cannot be predicted or planned from what is known. America was discovered as something new getting in the way of or surprising what Columbus already knew If innovation/discovery was easy, by being based on what is known, someone else would have already found it! Innovation is not just based on what you don’t know, it is based in what you don’t know you don’t know!

36. St. Luke’s Communication, an Advertising Firm in England: • Every morning the offices and seating arrangements are totally and randomly changed so when you come to work each morning you have no idea with whom you’ll be seating next to or in what office. • Disconcerting? Yes! But Novelty is Possible!

37. Symmetry Breaking In physics, symmetry groups are mathematical representations of invariances, that is, invariance in physical laws in different situations. An example is theory of relativity which is really a theory of invariance: laws of physics are invariant with regard to relative motion. Symmetry breaking is therefore about the inclusion of variances, not invariances.

38. Turing Reaction Diffusion Symmetry Breaking Symmetry Breaking High symmetry: no preferential direction or pattern Bifurcation Nonlinearity and Instability Chemical control parameters

39. Phase Transition in Ferromagnet Order parameter ()increases High symmetry: no preferential direction or pattern TemperatureDecreases (control parameter) Symmetry Breaking Bifurcation Tc Aligned spins: preferential direction

40. Self-organizing Systems (Prigogine; Haken) Symmetry Breaking High symmetry: no preferential direction or pattern Order parameter ()increases Bifurcation Temperature Increase Aligned spins: preferential direction

41. CRITICALIZATION IN SYMMETRY BREAKING Symmetry Breaking Bifurcation • CRITICAL SITUATION AND EMERGENCE: CRISIS; FAR-FROM-EQUILIBRIUM CONDITIONS; NEAR BIFURCATION PARAMETER VALUES • NOTE: IN AN ORGANIZATION WHERE THE PRIORITIES ARE CONSTANTLY SHIFTING, A CRITICAL STATE OR FAR-FROM-EQUILIBRIUM CONDITIONS WOULD BE A STATE OF CALM AND NON-SHIFTING PRIORITIES

42. Instability as Factor in Symmetry-breaking Symmetry Breaking Comes from the Instability of the Symmetry as the System Evolves Dynamically and Contingencies Come Into Play

43. Instability is Necessary Condition for Sensitivity to Random Events Chance events, randomization This is Utilization of Serendipity

44. But “Instability” and “Random” are Scary Words for Leaders who Map is of a Simple System Chance events, randomization This is Utilization of Serendipity

45. Hence there is also a Need for Leaders to Establish Firm but Permeable Boundaries to Contain Anxiety and Focus Energy Boundaries: Physical, Psychological, Organizational, Systemic

46. What do Leaders Need to Do to Bring about the New in their Organizations/Institutions? • The New Cannot be Legislated or Mandated into Existence • The New Cannot Come Forth Out of the Normal Routine Way of Doing Things

47. Symmetry Breaking in the Workplace • Turn the Pyramid Upside Down for a day (Medieval Day of the Fool) • Do things backwards, sideways,… • Kauffman’s “Foolish” Adaptation • As an experiment, add variability even when it seems redundant or inefficient as an experiment • The more variances in “language” the better, go back to differences above

48. Examples of Innovation in the Workplace and their Scale: Exercise random low Consensus high simple high low Certainty

49. Theoretical Model Building: 1. Applying NDS to Emergence: • Nonlinear Dynamical Systems • Parameters/Constraints: * Opportunity Tension * Informational Differences • Attractors • Bifurcation or Emergence of New Attractors • Emergence of Innovative Structures and Processes • Novelty Generation Mechanisms of Emergence: Recombinatory Operations

50. Stylistic Image of Attractor in Phase Space (not meant as an actual attractor.) z x y Constrained set of allowable configurations among various possibilities illustrated by grey ball moving along the trajectory