Complex Systems

The computer I am using is very sophisticated. It is new and a significant improvement over the one it replaced, but it is still a simple system. That means that the same input will produce the same output. Every time I press the same key I get the same output.

People don’t work that way. The same stimulus will not produce the same output. No matter how funny the joke, repeated telling of it will not produce the same reaction. People are constantly changing, constantly learning, constantly adapting. They are complex systems.

There may be some broad patterns to people but there is no one size fits all and each individual will change over time and indifferent contexts. Because firms are essentially machines where all of the moving parts are people, it follows that the ability to read and understand people is a Core Competence for any leader and yet I find that understanding human behaviour is usually towards the bottom of most leaders’ reading lists.

Richard Bandler once said that “People spend more time learning how to use a food processor than they do learning how to use their brains.”. True though this may well be almost everyone is convinced they understand the human mind pretty well.

So the questions for this week are;

• On a scale of 0 to 10 how would you score your knowledge of the human brain, including motivation, beliefs, values, fears and identity?
• How would you assess your level of reading and research of academic papers on the above, scant, surface level or in depth?
• What level of training have you had in any of the above?
• Is there a mismatch between your answers?

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