Complexity Leadership Academy of Management Professional Development Workshop August 4, 2007

Purpose  Catalyze the emergence of an empirical research agenda to develop complexity leadership ideas.  Enable a rich, collaborative interaction network among scholars who are theorizing, experimenting and innovating in the complexity leadership area.  Innovate thru high quality research to be published in upcoming books & journal issues.

What We Have Planned  Overview of Complexity Leadership  Deeper dive into key areas of interest Leadership and non-linear dynamical systems Emergence and leadership Top-down versus bottom-up Leadership as enabling & catalyzing interactions Dynamic network analysis Innovation and creativity as outcomes  Focus on specific research questions  Interactive sessions on research design

Overview of Field  Began with Marion & Uhl-Bien (2001) LQ  Developments since then: Special issue of LQ out now August, 2007 Two Books in press by Uhl-Bien & Marion and Hazy, Goldstein & Lichtenstein Special Issue of Emergence: Complexity and Organizations (E:CO) 8(4) December 2006 Articles on complexity and leadership appearing in major journals (LQ, AMJ) Two workshops held in 2005 on Complexity and Leadership Wiki page and network of scholars

What is Complexity Leadership?  Application of complexity science to principles to leadership Complexity science developed in the physical sciences  New paradigm to think about leadership based in complex adaptive systems (rather than bureaucracy)  This paradigm well suited to the needs of the global, connectionist, knowledge era

Basics of Complexity Theory Complex systems/ complex adaptive systems Interacting sets of autonomous agents or ideas Characteristics: The time dimension: dynamical systems and attractors Interactive, interdependent agents Emergence of properties at higher levels Evolutionary selection at multiple levels Network structures Innovation, learning & complexity

Deeper dives into themes  Non-Linear dynamical systems Kevin  Emergence & leadership Jim  Bottom-up & top-down Mary  Enabling & catalyzing interactions Russ  Network dynamics Craig  Innovation & complexity leadership Gita

Complexity Leadership Non-Linear Dynamical Systems Kevin Dooley

Nonlinear dynamical systems  Nonlinear dynamical systems: Analytical concepts and empirical tools that model the temporal behavior of complex systems  Assumptions Generative mechanisms drive system evolution We can observe temporal patterns to identify the underlying generative mechanisms  Key concepts Attractors, nonlinearity, bifurcations, chaos

NDS - Insights  General insights Types of attractors  Point, periodic, chaotic, and random  Type determined by # of factors & how they interact Attractor type  predictability & sensitivity  Leadership insights Limits to prediction Attractors both stabilizing and constraining Dynamical patterns exist and co-evolve across temporal scales

NDS – Research Questions  Theoretical How do different patterns of interaction create different types of attractors? How can purely analytical formulations inform real-life social action? What about randomness?  Methodological How do we model evolving networks? How do we study system dynamics across different time scales?

Complexity Leadership Emergence & Leadership Jim Hazy

Emergence & leadership: Definitions  Group or team leadership as organizing patterns & emergent social structures. Agents choose between self-interest and cooperation Cooperation can lead to coordinated behaviors in routines  Agents engage in “self-transcendent construction” to enable emergence as described above. Agents are motivated be part of a larger whole Some agents enable others to “construct” an emergent order  Four levels of emergence identified. Each may involve different leadership. Networks, Groups, Hierarchy & Coordination

Emergence & leadership: Insights  Networks Leader/follower influence dyads & groupings Leaders style impacts evolution of network structure  Groups Bifurcation from self-interest to correlated action Decomposed into modular forms with hardening boundaries Styles and acts of leadership impact group stability  Hierarchy Leader roles emerge and persist Certain conditions imply formal leadership attractor dynamics and thus potentially hierarchy Leaders recognizing self-organized patterns, both good and bad to monitor and maintain hierarchy  Coordination Exploration versus exploitation tension Centralized versus decentralized control tension

Emergence & Leadership: Research Questions  What factors impact the strength and timing of collective bifurcation from self- interested to correlated action?  What factors influence recruitment and defection into and out of led-groups?  How do information flows impact leadership dynamics among, for example, formal, emergent and shared leadership?

Complexity Leadership Bottom-Up & Top-Down Mary Uhl-Bien

Bottom-Up & Top-Down: Definitions  In complexity, order emerges from interacting agents and their interaction with the environment Order is not imposed exogenously  Therefore, leadership is not only top- down, it is also bottom-up when interacting agents act as catalysts of bottom-up emergent structures & organizing patterns

Bottom-Up & Top-Down: Insights  Lets us see different forms of leadership not restricted to formal (managerial) roles process that emerges informally & bottom-up a complex interactive dynamic embedded in context  Entanglement this informal, emergent leadership interacts with administrative (managerial, bureaucratic) leadership in a manner we call entanglement

Bottom-Up & Top-Down: Research Questions  Theoretical How do we manage entanglement? How does top-down (i.e., hierarchical) leadership recognize and interact with bottom up leadership?  Methodological If we take leadership out of a formal (managerial) role how do we identify what is leadership? How do we capture the complex dynamics (e.g., context) that comprise leadership? How do we measure bottom-up leadership?

Complexity Leadership Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions Russ Marion

Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions: Definitions  Enabling Actions: Fosters conditions in which complex dynamics can emerge  Examples Foster Interaction Fosters Interdependencies Creates adaptive tension Generates adaptive rules Embraces heterogeneity  Enabling is a dynamic (i.e., mechanism) rather than an event

Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions: Issues  Catalyst: agents, behaviors, ideas whose actions speed complex dynamics or foster elaboration  Catalysts are both products of complex interactions and productive of complex interactions

Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions: Research Questions  Theoretical How do leaders enable conditions that foster complex dynamics? How do leaders enable catalysts?  Methodological What are the (interactive) mechanisms by which ideational and structural elaborations are catalyzed? What enabling dynamics foster emergent outcomes (e.g., learning, creativity, adaptability)?

Complexity Leadership Network Dynamics Craig Schreiber

Network Leadership Dynamics: Definitions

Network Dynamics: Insights  Leadership in process Several forms of leadership (Catalysts)  Creating interactions and interdependencies - Cognitive Demand  Enhancing knowledge flows – Degree Centrality  Maintaining relational coupling – Boundary Spanner  Increasing the speed of learning – Closeness Centrality  Communicating new knowledge – Effective Network Size Concurrent and complex leadership dynamic  Distinct leaders  Shared leadership within and between forms  Individual leaders can enact leadership within multiple forms

Network Dynamics: Research Questions  What are the contextual conditions that lead to emergent and productive collective action?  How do the various leadership forms work together and how does this complex dynamic foster emergent outcomes?  What additional variables and metrics are needed?

Complexity Leadership Innovation & Complexity Leadership Gita Surie

Innovation & Complexity Leadership  Conceptual model of innovation based on interactions and complexity leadership Interactions are basic unit in complex system dynamics Specific interaction patterns can help to nurture innovation ‘Generative’ leadership directs and manages interactions to maintain balance or ‘edge of chaos’

Innovation & Complexity Leadership  Enabling innovation requires: Increasing interactions & introducing novelty Managing complexity  Generative leaders nurture innovation by focusing on: Manipulating rules of collaboration Catalyzing the context Changing the system-environment model

Innovation and complexity leadership A model of generative leadership: Leveraging internal and external interactions Figure 3. Innovation dynamics leverage internal and external interactions to match predictive models to opportunities via rapid interaction and feedback

Innovation and Complexity Leadership – Research Questions  Theoretical - How do interactions help to nurture innovation in complex systems? What interaction patterns enable innovation? What is the nature of leadership that enables innovation in complex systems?  Methodological How do we model the emergence of innovation in complex systems? How do we study complexity leadership?

Complexity Leadership Research Questions Breakout

Research Questions for Discussion  How do different patterns of interaction create different types of attractors?  What contextual conditions imply emergent and productive collective action?  How does top-down (i.e., hierarchical) leadership recognize and interact with bottom up patterns and leadership?  How do interactions help to nurture innovation in complex systems?

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