Managers tend to treat organizations as if they are infinitely plastic. They hire and fire, merge, downsize, terminate programs, add capacities. But there are limits to the shifts that organizations can absorb.

Quote by Kevin Kelly

Topics: Kevin Kelly Quotes

The organization and the environment are in concert.

The organization and the environment are in concert.

Managing bottom-up change is its own art.

Managing bottom-up change is its own art.

The system continually has to make this choice: it can either continue to exploit a...

The system continually has to make this choice: it can either continue to exploit a...

Much of outcomes research is a systematic attempt to exploit what is known and make...

Much of outcomes research is a systematic attempt to exploit what is known and make...

When a system is in turbulence, the turbulence is not just out there in the...

When a system is in turbulence, the turbulence is not just out there in the...

But when you are embodied in a location, in a physical plant, in a set...

But when you are embodied in a location, in a physical plant, in a set...

Complexity that works is built up out of modules that work perfectly, layered one over...

Complexity that works is built up out of modules that work perfectly, layered one over...

All imaginable futures are not equally possible.

All imaginable futures are not equally possible.

An organization's reason for being, like that of any organism, is to help the parts...

An organization's reason for being, like that of any organism, is to help the parts...

Basins of attraction, of self organization, show up as well in our complex social environment,...

Basins of attraction, of self organization, show up as well in our complex social environment,...

An organization's intelligence is distributed to the point of being ubiquitous.

An organization's intelligence is distributed to the point of being ubiquitous.

The way to build a complex system that works is to build it from very...

The way to build a complex system that works is to build it from very...

The way that organizations and organisms anticipate the future is by taking signals from the...

The way that organizations and organisms anticipate the future is by taking signals from the...

In a broad systems sense, an organism's environment is indistinguishable from the organism itself.

In a broad systems sense, an organism's environment is indistinguishable from the organism itself.

Organisms by their design are not made to adapt too far.

Organisms by their design are not made to adapt too far.

The most certain thing you can say about the environment tomorrow is that it probably...

The most certain thing you can say about the environment tomorrow is that it probably...

It's more along the lines of raising a child: we train the system to a...

It's more along the lines of raising a child: we train the system to a...

The great advance of personal computers was not the computing power per se but the...

The great advance of personal computers was not the computing power per se but the...

One of the functions of an organization, of any organism, is to anticipate the future,...

One of the functions of an organization, of any organism, is to anticipate the future,...

Technological advances could allow us to see more clearly into our own lives.

Technological advances could allow us to see more clearly into our own lives.