In the last blog, we described how the variety of possible 1st order behavioral closures constituted superposed states representing all the possible behaviors able to be realized by a living system. This restricted the possible…
Special thanks go to John Kineman who has acted as a reader for this blog, providing invaluable help in clarifying my thinking. I alone bear responsibility for the end result! The need to surrender sovereignty,…
The Tavistock Institute community was well aware of the challenges presented by ecosystems (Trist and Murray 1997), addressing the different nature of turbulent environments (Emery and Trist 1965), the referent or regulative organizations that arose…
I wrote a blog recently on how 21st Century Capitalism differs from 20th Century Capitalism (Boxer 2023). It argued that Marx worked with two dialectics: not only the dialectic between use-value and exchange value, but…
The growth of the Q-sectors reflects a change in the structure of the economy i.e., a change in the way 21st century capitalism works. This change is a consequence of digitalization that is providing the…
Autopoiesis (Maturana and Varela 1980[1972]) is central to Stafford Beer’s Viable Systems Modeling (VSM). VSM asserts that an enterprise has and retains its identity – it is in the business of preserving its own organization.[1]…
Distinguishing the Q-sectors The need for dynamic alignment and synchronization – the capabilities associated with the top-Λ of the double-V cycle – arise as a consequence of the competitive pressures created by accelerating demand tempos….
We have seen how the competitive pressures created by accelerating demand tempos lead organizations to develop the requisite agility needed to work with the top-Λ of the double-V cycle – to develop the capabilities for…
by Philip Boxer As demand tempo exceeds integration tempo, ‘design-time’ and ‘run-time’ become entangled[1], requiring a different approach to governance that needs to be East-West (horizontally) dominant[2]. It follows that the double-V cycle[3] becomes increasingly…
by Philip Boxer To take advantage of the effects of digitalization, an enterprise needs to move from a two-dimensional to a four-dimensional approach to governance – from a two-dimensional ‘as above, so below’ approach to…