In engineering I learned about how Adaptive Control is used to manage Nonlinear Processes. These are defined as processes that change in behavior as operating levels change. An example might be an industrial plant where chemicals, gasses, liquids and other things are mixed together at a constant rate but at some point the temperature of the mix starts to increase and even accelerate. With the right mechanisms in place the plant will adapt accordingly and sustain its performance. The adaptive control systems that manage such processes use highly tuned feedback loops and signal filters to drive sophisticated control valves and keep the plant from exploding. If you are technically inclined, here is a technical chapter on the topic.
This blog explores how many of the companies we work at also display nonlinear behavior - and at times potentially explosive behavior - but are often managed using simple linear management techniques. If so, when the company’s “temperature” starts to rise and performance starts to drop nobody notices. This is aggravated when the change follows more of a “slow boiling frog” pattern, and I suspect this is quite common. How many of us have seen teams suddenly disintegrate? People are generally resilient, understanding and accommodating so it is possible that the sudden exodus event was in fact the result of many factors over a significant period of time. With your help, I would like to define Adaptive Enterprise Management as a methodology and validate the hypothesis that it can improve the performance of any size of enterprise.
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June 10, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[...] feedback loops César over at non linear enterprise is spot on about feedback [...]