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Plexus Fractals

What is a Plexus Fractal? Plexus Fractals are self-organizing groups of people who want to get together face-to-face periodically to learn about complexity and its applications, share experience and problems, and network with others with similar interests. On a regular basis someone in the Plexus Network will ask, "Why don't we reboot local Fractals?" In the past, Plexus Fractals were hosted in cities across the US and Canada and were a popular way for members of the Plexus community [...]

admin2020-03-01T10:09:08-05:00Complexity Matters Posts, Events|

Stories in Action: Sharing Complexity Conversations

A hallmark of Plexus Institute for nearly 20 years has been the sharing of conversations focused on applied principles of complexity across the professional, scientific and academic fields. Through hundreds of PlexusCalls, anyone could listen to, learn from, and ask questions of leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners working to influence and lead change in the most complex and challenging situations. Today, this Plexus tradition continues with ComPlexus Podcasts. We are in the process of recording the first series [...]

admin2019-10-20T18:30:24-04:00Complexity Matters Posts|

Living in Complexity: Stories Today and Yesterday

Ideas drive action, attitudes and behavior, and there’s nothing like stories to unfurl ideas and let them flourish. Aesop’s Fables , believed to have been written by a Greek slave sometime around the Sixth Century BCE, has been named one of the world’s most influential books by The New York Public Library and other scholarly sources that offer such opinions. It’s a collection of stories meant to deliver cautionary tales and moral lessons. The enduring influence of these ancient [...]

Prucia Buscell2019-11-29T17:34:22-05:00Adaptive Positive Deviance, Case Studies, Catalyzing Stories Project|

The Engineer and The Gardener: Management Science Versus Complexity Science

Let's Begin with Management Science The concept of management as a science has its origins in the aftermath of World War II. During that conflict the use of analytical disciplines drawn from operations research proved enormous useful in decision-making. After the war the hope was that the business use of operations research would form the basis for a science of management that used rational, evidence-based techniques and analytical methods to inform and improve decisions of all kinds. The result [...]

admin2019-08-14T13:07:58-04:00Complexity Matters Posts|

Humans, Technology and Complexity: Perks and Perils and Ageless Questions

The crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets that took the lives of 346 people in less than five months were preceded by a complex series of engineering, economic, corporate and regulatory decisions whose combined interplay contributed to tragic unintended consequences. The fallout from the two disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia is no less complex. Government oversight responsibilities, corporate practices and the impact of intense airline business competition are under scrutiny as the investigations of [...]

admin2019-11-29T17:48:19-05:00Catalyzing Stories Project, Complexity Matters Posts|

Plexus Partners Catalyze “The DNA of Collaboration” In New #Tweetchat Event

JOIN Plexus Catalysts Bruce Waltuck and Denise Easton for a Saturday morning #Tweetchat with author/consultant/change leader Chris Jones on the dynamics of collaboration through a complexity perspective. Since 2012,Chris has led a group of OD practitioners in monthly discussions on complex challenges in organizations. With Plexus, #orgdna is continuing its exploration of sense-making in complexity. Please meet #orgdna! As always, the Plexus Institute supports and partners with others around the world, working to achieve positive change through the application [...]

admin2019-03-26T21:32:43-04:00Collaborations, Tweet Chats|

Plexus Network, Meet #orgdna

Plexus Network, Meet #orgdna Our ongoing conversation on complexity has new energy. Plexus Institute has partnered with DNA of Collaboration founder Chris Jones and #orgdna community to expand conversations on social complexity. #orgdna is a self-selecting community of #orgdev and #complexity thinkers exploring collaborative aspects of the organization since 2012. As we encounter experiences that require new responses and ways of thinking to address complex structural and behavorial patterns in our working environments, traditional organizational practices routinely [...]

admin2019-06-17T15:16:50-04:00Collaborations, Engagement, Partners|

Creating and Distributing Value – Where to Begin?

The complex topic of "value" in human systems is the focus of Chris Lawer’s current work at Umio where he explores the difficult-to-grasp and oft-debated concept of value, with a particular focus on health and care (eco)systems. Chris begins with the main theories of value that have emerged over two millennia of debate, and the two primary forms of value – exchange and use - which for more than two centuries, have underpinned the prevalent neo-classical economic view. He will [...]

admin2019-03-02T16:26:10-05:00Complexity Matters Posts, Healthcare, Plexus Pop-Up Conversations, The Commons Project|

Is Your Mind Playing Games?

Why are family reunions and holiday gatherings so often prone to free-floating angst, irrational episodes and inexplicable outbursts? Such eruptions may have origins that are utterly obscure or only dimly remembered, but complexity science can help us make sense of them. In his extraordinary book The Developing Mind, How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, psychiatrist and scholar Daniel J. Siegel talks about the family not only as a complex system, but as a supersystem, composed [...]

admin2019-02-14T16:14:24-05:00Awarefulness, Complexity Matters Posts, Neuroscience|

Conversations to Reduce the Discord in Our Country: Better Angels

This article was written by Plexus Network member Nancy Dixon, whose work focuses on the people side of knowledge management. "Our most effective knowledge sharing tool is conversation. The words we choose, the questions we ask, and the metaphors we use to explain ourselves, are what determine our success in creating new knowledge, as well as sharing that knowledge with each other." Like many others, I have been sorely troubled by the level of disrespect in our public conversations. For that [...]

admin2018-08-28T16:37:07-04:00Complexity Matters Posts|

For the Good of the Hive
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For the Good of the Hive

Catalyst Project, Complexity Matters Posts, Ecosystems

For the Good of the Hive

"The health of a honey bee is based on the health of the hive, not the individual bee. Collective action is necessary for growth and expansion. Humans are the same way, although we rarely act like it. Many of the issues we face today are not divided by borders. In fact, bee health or pollination issues are more likely to be solved by transcending them." Matthew Willey When Melissa Stephenson, a Plexus Catalyst shared information about the New Hampshire Honey [...]

admin2018-07-20T18:15:41-04:00Catalyst Project, Complexity Matters Posts, Ecosystems|

Why Bees Fascinate Us
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Why Bees Fascinate Us

Complexity Matters Posts, Ecosystems, PlexusCalls

Why Bees Fascinate Us

Bees and humans have been closely associated for a millennia. We have been fascinated by bees ever since our ancient ancestors tasted honey. Scientists have a wealth of knowledge about bees, their behavior and their extraordinary social organization, but mysteries remain. Researchers believe the mapping of the bee genome may hold clues to how inborn and environmental factors interact to influence what genes actually do in the brain to regulate behavior. In December 2004, Gene Robinson, wrote a compelling New [...]

admin2018-07-23T16:51:10-04:00Complexity Matters Posts, Ecosystems, PlexusCalls|