FlockEffect

Good Things Don't Just Happen, They Emerge

FlockEffect is based on emergence phenomena in systems theory.  Its name comes from one of these phenomena called flocking.   Scientists have been studying flocking dynamics for two decades by observing the collective motion of large numbers of self-propelled entities.  They've discovered that astonishing results can occur when a few simple relational rules are applied to a variety of creatures like birds, fish, bacteria, insects, and even people.

We've taken what science has learned about flocking and other forms of emergence -- like collective/swarm intelligence, aggregate wisdom, and decentralized work -- and we've applied these to group dynamics and management theory.  This application, FlockEffect, infuses business processes with the simplicity and power of self-organization, self-motivation, self-direction and self-regulation. 

These principles are employed in the animal world for innovation, survival, and a high-return on resource investments.  Through them, the members of groups and networks share the load, utilize and optimize participation of every member, and draw resources to the surface at the critical moments.  Pioneers in business are beginning to realize the importance of these powerful dynamics in economic environments as well.  Markets, workforces, and industries are moved by these underlying forces, so their comprehension increases responsiveness and sensitivity.  In the growing climate of constant change, the next challenges demand that every person in the organization moves with agility and common purpose.

3 Rules

Manage Complexity with Simplicity

FlockEffect applies simple rules, practices, and structures to group and network interaction in order to release emergent behaviors, capacities, and powers.  This structure creates an environment of collaborative motion where the product of the whole exceeds the sum of the members when they are at rest or in independent motion. Since the effectiveness of the whole comes from helping the members connect their direction and contributions, the resulting environment produces exceptional results while simultaneously maintaining health and integrity of individual members and the entire network.

This structured environment begins with group dynamics based on three key rules that must be embodied at every level of organization (group, sub-groups, individuals):

People & Brains

Why FlockEffect is Effective

The Modern Age of business assumed that humanity's key talent was the invention of technology and the powers of abstract thinking.  But as neurology has unraveled the wiring of our brains, we've discovered that our 100 billion neurons like to make connections, building networks of people, capacities, and concepts to meet challenges.  Business thinkers have worked this understanding into the cutting edge of management theory and have discovered that people perform best when in a group where everyone applies maximum awareness, even to a common task.  We do benefit from leaders who provide clarity through articulation, placement, and reinforcement, but we don't typically work at our peak when a single brain or elite group does all the thinking.  In order to be fully present (and productive, consciencous, safe, and creative) we must think through any work in the context of a network of well-connected brains.

Since we're so wired for working socially, the quality of work roughly equals the quality of the relationships involved.  For example, risk-avoidance centers in the brain are related to the same areas that handle complex social dynamics.  Generally speaking, the more stimulated these areas are by social entanglements, the less likely members will make their relational network available, contribute their full potential, or trust a good decision that will lead to good outcomes.  The solution is to structure a work environment that continually clears entanglements.  Besides improving collaboration, these healthier interactions actually stimulate the parts of the brain that like risk and reward and contribute strongly to creativity and productivity.

Teams can be more effective by developing a rhythm of reflection on the following questions (the faster the group speed, the more frequent):

Applications

What Potential Could Emerge Where You Are?

Team Work

Although team chemistry has been often illusive and mysterious, its true source is almost always a few members with relational skills in clearing and managing social entanglements so communication and work can happen with transparency and enthusiasm.  The best teams turn these skills of a few into group culture.  FlockEffect draws out this capacity in members and accelerates team discovery of their chemistry which can then be encoded into shared practices and a common identity.

Team Alignment

Often group dynamics within teams steer everyone off course, lowering the value of their work to the organization and wasting resources.  Even when the project goes a few degrees off-center initially, this will lead to major deviations over time.  FlockEffect resolves these dynamics to allow teams to self-correct, rebuilding work relationships and realigning teams with the larger organizational mission.  By building these effective-yet-simple dynamics into work culture, teams can inoculate against future deviations and organizations can ensure effective transfer of strategic and cultural DNA at every level.

Knowledge Networks

As complexity, rapid change, and fragmentation contiue to increase, the brain that owns the future is the hive-mind rather than the master-mind.  FlockEffect can create networks that compund their sensitivity and processing power to discover better information, realize more possibilities, and envision applications while, at the same time, building adoption of shared innovation across workforces and markets.  This naturally avoids expensive group-think and maximizes operational, strategic, and human investments.

Market Movements

Many businesses invest considerable time and energy developing advocates in their market.  The return on this investment is largely determined by the handles these advocates provide to the business for steering the decentralized, largely flat, relational matrix of the market.  FlockEffect can enhance this return by empowering greater synchronization between these advocates and company personnel while building the leadership effectiveness of advocates, even in audiences that percieve themselves as leaderless.