Using Complexity To Create Jobs

Using Complexity Science to Create Businesses and Jobs

Communities throughout America are facing high unemployment and a growing number of reduced or terminated businesses in the current climate. The manufacturing sector has been particularly hard hit, and this is causing ripple effects in many other industry sectors. Recent terrorist attacks on America further aggravate the growing crisis.

This is not just an economic problem. Human beings have lost gainful employment and are suffering mentally, emotionally and financially as a result. Communities have lost tax revenues, forcing them to either cut back on vital services or raise taxes or both. Families are strained, and nonprofit organizations have less support for their charitable work.

Throughout America people responsible for job development and finding employment for those who have lost jobs are using the only methods they know: trying to match individual workers with available openings, which grow fewer every week. It is an increasingly frustrating endeavor, bordering on hopelessness in cases where there simply are no jobs for people with certain skills and experience. The new findings of Complexity science offer new hope and exciting possibilities for creating jobs through a team approach instead of working with individuals.

How to Use Complexity Science for Business and Job Development

Suppose we conduct what scientists call a thought experiment. Imagine a large environment such as an empty manufacturing facility or warehouse filled with hundreds of unemployed people. If these people were all invited to gather and mingle with the intent of finding new business partners, one or two new business start-ups might actually emerge. But the great majority of participants would find the experience confusing and frustrating. So the challenge becomes, what can be done to create an environment in which the probability of new businesses emerging, out of "chaos" through complexity, is much greater? Following the tenets of Complexity science, as well as the successful strategies of leading businesses, here are some ways to maximize the probability of success:

1. Form a Guiding Coalition of interested leaders. Every community has organizations whose mission it is, directly or indirectly, to help people find new jobs or develop job skills. These include the Employment Security Commission, community colleges, other job training programs, economic development commissions, various Workforce Development initiatives, and interested or empowered city and county administrators. In cases where most of these leaders are not yet familiar with Complexity science, it is desirable to have a facilitator who has that knowledge. There will be many instances when old linear mechanical ways of thinking get in the way of these leaders doing nonlinear problem-solving. However, these leaders hold the keys to the community and governmental resources which must be united to create the right environment for new "complex adaptive systems" to emerge. Their participation is essential, and for best results they should be open to learning and using the fundamentals of Complexity science to tackle the growing unemployment problem. One side benefit, of course, is that they can use these new insights and methods to more effectively lead their own organizations in complex situations.

2. Gather sufficient funding for the effort. Some local organizations may have a limited amount of funds they can contribute to the launch of the new development effort. Another key source may be grant monies from state and federal sources which are looking for innovative ways to alleviate unemployment and other community problems. Owners of large buildings which are empty but still have utility service may be willing to make their property available at very low cost with the understanding that any businesses launched from this effort would pay rent as soon as they were earning money. Other sources could be identified by members of the Guiding Coalition.

3. Create an appropriate environment. To keep costs low, this can be a large empty building, as noted above. Initially only inexpensive or portable tables and chairs would be needed. Later telephones and Internet access will be essential. A central office with a copier and fax machine would be needed soon. In some communities facilities like this are called business incubators. But incubators rely on individual or partner entrepreneurs to come to them with plans. So a more appropriate term for this facility is a pre-incubator. In biological terms we are talking about fertilization before incubation. Or we could use Complexity science language and call it an environment.

4. Invite interested unemployed people. To make this program as appealing as possible to unemployed people, terms like Complexity science probably should not be used at first. Yet old terminology will not signal the newness of this approach. So new language must be developed, and a wide variety of communications should be employed. Hopefully the launch of this effort will be sufficiently interesting that local news media would provide advanced publicity. It might even be possible to convince one of the media to be a co-sponsor so there is in-depth advanced coverage. A letter of invitation might be sent to selected people registered with the local ESC. There is at least a possibility of an overwhelming number of people showing up, so the "rules of the game" must be made very clear up front.

5. Establish clear rules. One of the principles of Complexity science is that the best solutions emerge in conditions of great freedom, with the smallest number of rules limiting the possibilities of emergence. These rules must be very carefully selected, because they become the small inputs which have unexpected large consequences, or the attractors around which organization occurs. They determine the path of order emerging from chaos and complexity. Here are some suggested rules, subject to review and enhancement by the Guiding Coalition and facilitator, of course:

a)	Participants must be committed to the good of the team. Order emerges best where teams act as a whole, with the members forming a "super-person" able to do things collectively that they could not do as individuals. They must share information, work cooperatively, and support each other emotionally. Anyone who violates team cooperation can be ejected.
b)	Participants will not be paid until their team earns money. This is a tough rule, but it is not likely that any funding source will want to pay people to participate in this experiment. This will also reduce the number of people who want to participate, but realism is essential. However, participants can earn "sweat equity" (stock) in any organization that emerges to the corporate stage. In other words, every dedicated team member will become a part owner of the emerging organization.
c)	Participants must commit to ethical conduct. Team learning and development can only occur in an environment of trust. We will be in many cases putting people together who do not know each other. To minimize conflict and self-destruction, a set of principles such as an enlightened, Complexity-based "Ten Commandments" will be needed. High moral principles are essential for teams to evolve successfully.
d)	Participants must be committed to shared learning. Learning is fundamental to the evolution of complex adaptive systems. This approach has been highly developed in the Learning Organization model promoted in Peter Senge's "The Fifth Discipline" and subsequent guidebooks by his group, now known as the Society for Organizational Learning (www.solonline.org). Although some of Senge's principles require a fairly high level of abstract thinking, the fundamentals can and should be adapted for this new program.

6. Identify skills. The skills of participants must be identified and catalogued in a database to facilitate matching them to potential work opportunities. This can be enhanced using online Internet forms but paper and pencil will be needed for those who are not Internet users.

7. Identify potential customers. This would be accomplished by telephone surveys of major employers in the area. They would be asked what products or services they currently buy outside of the area, but which they would be willing to buy in the area if available at a competitive price and quality.

8. Match opportunities and skills. Products and services which can be produced with minimal capital investment have the most potential for start-ups unless your people have advanced skills. Borrowing money will require some kind of collateral, and the less borrowed the better. Look for inexpensive or free space and activities which can be done with simple tools. Continue dialoguing with potential customers. In fact they might have sufficient concern for the unemployed people that they would participate in teaching or explaining what they need to do. Use your local community college or other knowledgeable sources to provide needed training.

9. Market the new products and services. Don't depend on one or a few local customers. That can be a fatal mistake. Once you are up and running, seek customers anywhere. Using inexpensive marketing such as the Internet and telephone calls. Begin with laser-printed sales materials and improve them once income starts flowing.

10. Continue evolving. Follow the Complexity principles outlined on this website and elsewhere. Do not fall back into old mechanical-industrial ways of working with bosses and rigid controls. Keep people empowered and responsible, informed and involved, learning and growing, adapting to change.

For more information or assistance by Lawrimore Communications, contact E.W. "Buck" Lawrimore at 704-525-4775 or email info@lciweb.com.

With these rules and others which the Guiding Coalition finds necessary, the stage will be set for an exciting emergence of order out of chaos. The process by nature must be experimental, because that is the only way for the best solutions to emerge. To some extent it will be "survival of the fittest," but every effort will be made to share learning and help every team succeed in some way. Patience will be needed by the sponsors, because there is much to be learned, and the outcomes cannot be forced. However it will probably be a powerful and possibly life-changing experience for those who undertake it, as well as a major contribution to the community.