REPLY Why don't organizations function better? (SD6608)

[SDMAIL Schuette, Wade]

Posted by  "Schuette, Wade" <wschuett at jhsph.edu>

Well, Jim, I have to respectfully suggest a fine-tuning to your broad 
assertion about change and evolution.
 
John Holland (creator of genetic algorithms) taught a complex adapative 
systems course here at Michigan, and he asserted that the primary 
mechanism for evolution is cross-over ("re-assortment"),  not mutation.  
That's pretty much what we got in Bio 101 as well. 
 
Mutation is a second-order effect that is valuable for getting a whole 
species un-stuck from a local maximum in fitness space.    Most of 
evolution is accomplished by mixing and matching genes each generation 
and is what "sex" is good for, and that's why there's way more than a 
one in 100,000,000 chance that our children don't look identical to us 
in all respects -- it's more like a 100% chance.    If you clone to 
generate children, I suppose you need mutation to change.
 
So,  there looks like there is high change but within a constrained 
space. 
 
As to organizations,  maybe the organizations you've been in change 
rapidly.  I've been in universities and Enterprise IT departments and 
health care systems, and they are not strong arguments for the dynamism 
of all organizations.  More like the proverbial supertankers.   On the 
other hand, they are extremely complex, so maybe that supports your point. 
 
I guess it's hard to build a tall structure if you're building on shifting 
sand,  but it's also hard to get too far if your feet are encased in 
concrete !   
 
Wade
Posted by  "Schuette, Wade" <wschuett at jhsph.edu>
posting date  Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:55:18 -0400