COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM
What distinguishes companies that emerge stronger from those that fail? The key lies in how
innovation supplies additional adaptability to the changing environment. Firms that cannot innovate
go the way of dinosaurs. As a major ingredient in adaptability, innovation means much more than
introducing new products or services, although without those no organization can compete in this
economy. A truly adaptable organization must also innovative in their practices, processes, strategies,
and structure.
Achieving this is simply not possible through traditional top-down management fiats. So, how can such
high levels of innovation be achieved? The answer lies on the insights coming out of the complexity
science. The science of complex systems, arising from physics, biology and psychology, among others,
provides a point of view, sometimes counter-intuitive, which helps us to think how we can design and
manage organizationsto achieve what nature has already achieved many millions of years ago: adapt
Course Learning Objectives
A complexity science-based view sees leadership as an influence process that arises through
interactions acrossthe organization: leadership happensin the space between people asthey interact.
Complexity science thus puts leaders in a greatly enhanced position to help their organizations
effectively navigate critical periods of growth and change. We reframe leadership as referring
primarily to events rather than to people. Through a series of interaction over time, leadership events
alter the underlying framework of engagement. They change the rules by which individuals interact,
influencing the ends to be achieved, such as where work group id headed, as well as the mean by
which it gets there
