Tom,
Welcome back. I must say that I for one, have missed your voice.
On the specific issues of Kauffman's patches, I was actually responding to
Nick, who said,
>>"It is far from clear that 'each part of the organization doing what is
>>right for itself' is a bad thing. I think Stuart Kauffman, in "At Home In
>>the Universe" describes the idea of "patches" as a way for an organization
>>to adapt efficiently to a fitness landscape. Each group ("patch") does
>>what it sees as best for itself, while at the same time watching to see
>>what works for others. When a patch finds a good solution, it changes the
>>problem faced by neighbors..."
I probably missed the connection to Kauffman, but I am quite confident
that if each part of the organization -- as parts of organizations are
commonly understood -- does the 'right thing' for itself, that it will be
very unlikely to result in the 'right thing' for the organization as a
whole.
I have read about patches, but I have not tried to figure out how many
there are in an organization. It would be interesting to overlay patches
on the defined org structure. I am not doubting Kauffman. I am
sufficiently ignorant on this subject to not have an opinion.
--Rol Fessenden
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>