Hi everyone. In a recent blog, Jules talked about “stepping out of one’s comfort zone”. Since I turned 40 a few years ago (ok, maybe more than a few) I decided to do something “new” every year. Thus far I have..
• taken up boxing - love it and have keep it up for fitness,
• tried to practice yoga regularly - find it really hard but persevere – you are only as old as your back!!
• competed in a number of multisport events here in New Zealand – this involved learning how to kayak and road bike … am definitely a complete rather than compete kind of girl and always do these as part of a team!! (www.coasttocoast.co.nz; www.laketolighthouse.co.nz)
• had my ears pierced
And of course you are now asking what has this to with complexity thinking?? Not much other than saying “yes” to this blog is my “something new” for the year. And it’s certainly shifting me out of my comfort zone - I am almost as nervous about it as I was going down a grade two rapid for the first time when I was learning to kayak!! You see, I’m not on face book, don’t twitter and up to now have not been quite sure about this blogging thing. The request may be Dave Snowden’s “payback” for a conversation we had recently when he was in NZ. It was the week between the two All Black/Welsh rugby tests. Needless to say, we support different sides of the field and had somewhat different views on the first test and expected outcome of the second. So all this is a very round about way of saying that I am somewhat nervous but looking forward to the next couple of weeks and writing this blog.
A more relevant introduction would be how I came across complexity thinking. In 2001 I had just finished my PhD and begun working as a lecturer in the Management Department at the University of Auckland Business School, where I continue to work today. I was part of a team researching innovation within small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises in NZ. The team leader introduced me to the work of Ralph Stacey. More reading on complexity followed and I was struck by the resonance with some of my previous research for my PhD. My PhD was in the field of Entrepreneurship, specifically using an Austrian Economics framework. To me, concepts like creative destruction (Schumpeter, 1942: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy) and spontaneous order (Hayek:classic papers like “The Pretence of Knowledge” and “Theory of complex phenomena”) had complexity written all over them. I now appreciate its not quite that simple, but it certainly has been an interesting intellectual journey over the last decade.
Enough for today - it is the weekend after all … until next time :)