LoBue: Enterprise Evolution: Glossary Of Concepts

OVERVIEW

Overview of Concepts & Ideas
Introduction

CONCEPTS

Evolution & Selection
Nonlinearity
Self-Organization

TERMS

Adaptation
Agent
Complexity
Emergence
Feedback
Fitness Landscapes
Internal Models
Multi-Agent Computer Models
Nested Hierarchies
Randomness & Chance

RECOMMENDED READING

GLOSSARY OF CONCEPTS

CORE AND GENERAL COMPLEXITY CONCEPTS: A BASIC CONCEPTUAL TOOLKIT FOR BUSINESS PROBLEMS
The field of complexity is about systems, specifically complex systems. These systems range from the processes inside a brain cell or the ecosystem of a rain forest to social systems such as companies or the global economy.

Not surprisingly, there are a number of concepts associated with the field of complexity. However, we have found it useful to think about complexity as having three fundamental or core concepts with which the vast majority of the other complexity concepts are related:

(1)	Nonlinearity
(2)	Self-organization
(3)	Evolution and selection

There are also many other Concepts and Terms related to complexity that are commonly used, such as adaptation, emergence, feedback and so on.

It might be useful to think of these various concepts that are coming from the new sciences of complexity as being a conceptual toolkit. Obviously, most people don’t own tools just to own tools; they own tools to get things done. The concepts of complexity may serve a similar function. They are probably different conceptual tools than most people typically use. However, once one becomes proficient with them, just as with a physical tool, then it is possible to get things done that might otherwise have been difficult to do.

To help you get a sense of complexity concepts as conceptual tools, each of the glossary items has a short explanation that is linked to a short example or two. Select the concept you wish to read about from the list on the right or select Next below.

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