Open Boundaries: Creating Business Innovation Through Complexity

Drawing from groundbreaking research at the Santa Fe Center for Emergent Strategies, new insights on applying complexity thinking in business to break out of old patterns and imagine new possibilities. In Open Boundaries , Howard Sherman and Ron Schultz bring fresh insights from the field of complexity thinking (the study of dynamic, adaptive systems) to unleash creativity and innovation throughout the organization by helping readers understandand even challengethe underlying principles, cognitive models, and rules that govern their decisions and actions. Showcasing the pioneering efforts of such organizations as diverse as Applied Biosystems and the U.S. Marine Corps, the authors illustrate the power of complexity in actionfrom creating new markets to spreading emerging knowledge throughout the company. }Todays businesses are constantly under pressure to innovateto develop new products, processes, and even organizational structuresin order to remain vibrant and healthy. But many businesses fall into the trap of doing more of the same, only faster. How can they break free of old patterns without overextending their resources or losing sight of their core goals and capabilities?In Open Boundaries, Howard Sherman and Ron Schultz bring fresh, new insights from the field of complexity thinkingthe study of dynamic evolving systemsto unleash creativity and innovation throughout the organization. Drawing from their groundbreaking research at the Santa Fe Center for Emergent Strategies, the authors challenge readers to explore the underlying principles, cognitive models, and rules that govern their decisions and actions to revealand, more importantly, overcomeobstacles to innovation and growth. Open Boundaries introduces a practical vocabulary to help managers understand, analyze, and nurture the creative process by eschewing linear cause-and-effect approaches to decision making in favor of an approach that thrives on ambiguity and unpredictability. Showcasing the pioneering efforts of such organizations as Xerox-PARC, Applied Biosystems, Patagonia, and the United States Marine Corps, the authors vividly illustrate the power of complexity thinking in actionfrom creating new markets to establishing new ways of spreading emerging knowledge throughout the company.Ultimately, Open Boundaries is about ideas, the most powerful of which is realizing that organizations are not mechanical entities, but living systems that are constantly adjusting and adapting to both internal and external forces of change. By embracing this perspective, businesses can become far more creative, innovative, and profitable than they might have ever thought possible. }

Table of Contents:
The Myth of the Closed System; A New Way of Thinking; Principles, Models, Rules, and Behaviors; Demystifying Complexity; Language, Narrative, and Metaphor; Real-World Applications for Coevolving Metaphors; Ideas Are the Geometries of Behaviors; The Franchise Model: Purpose in Action; Apprehending the Future.