Organizations as Brains
Matt Braun
Mary Mulcahy
Colleen Mooney
Lorraine E. Zlupko
Organizations as Brains
The brain as a system engages in an incredibly
diverse set of parallel activities that make
complimentary and competing contributions
to what eventually emerges as a coherent
pattern (p. 75).
Organizations as Brains
Metaphor Strengths
• Information Processing Brains
 Networked intelligence
 Limitless supply of data
 Data-driven organizations
 Human-based computation
 Humans and computers work together to solve problems
 Changing the divided brain paradigm
 Left and right brain capacities are intertwined, not opposing
• Create Learning Organizations
 Scan and anticipate change in the wider environment to detect
significant variations (adapt or fail)
 Develop an ability to question, challenge, and change operating norms
and assumptions (double looping)
 Allow an appropriate strategic direction and pattern of organizations to
emerge (learn from mistakes)
Principle 1:
Build the
“Whole” into
the “Parts”
Principle 5:
Learn to
Learn
Principle 2:
The
Importance
of
Redundancy
Organizations
as Holographic
Brains
Principle 4:
“Minimum
Specs”
Principle 3:
Requisite
Variety
Organizations as Brains
Metaphor Limitations
•
•
Having to “evoke metaphors to elaborate the
implications of a metaphor” (p. 111) – when
discussing the Organizations as Brain metaphor we
are forced to look at other metaphors to describe
the first (ex: holographics and cybernetics)
The possibility of “overlooking the important
conflicts that can arise between learning and selforganization, on one hand, and the realities of
power and control on the other” (p.114)
Real-World Connection
• Is it possible to design
learning organizations that
have the capacity to be as
flexible, resilient and
inventive as the functioning
of the brain?
• Is it possible to distribute
capacities for intelligence
and control throughout an
enterprise so that the
system as a whole can selforganize and evolve along
with emerging challenges?
(Morgan, p. 72)
Organizational Need for Change…………
• The school organization has “grown” a great deal, moving
from a struggling school to a STAR 4 center.
• We have created these positive
changes with a modified
“machine” organizational
model, but, it is time in our
organizational growth to
change our focus and mindset
in order to continue our
Continuous Quality
Improvement goals.
• It is imperative that knowledge and power become
distributed in the organization.
Moving from a “Machine” to a “Brain” Organizational Structure
Positives:
* Building a Learning Organization
* Requisite Variety - internal diversity
* Corporate DNA
Working
toward
change
Watch for:
*Resistance of status quo
* Managers must be willing to truly let go
Change Process to Organization as a Brain Model
Machine Metaphor
Where the
school is
now…
Where we want to be ---Brain Metaphor
• Great degree of
interconnectedness
• Distributed
leadership
• Learning Community
• NOT imposing from
above –
communication and
integration
An Example of Interconnectedness……..
Blue Brain Project
Reconstructing the brain piece by piece and building a virtual brain in a supercomputer—these are some of
the goals of the Blue Brain Project. The virtual brain will be an exceptional tool giving neuroscientists a
new understanding of the brain and a better understanding of neurological diseases.
The Blue Brain project began in 2005 with an agreement between the EPFL and IBM, which supplied the
BlueGene/L supercomputer acquired by EPFL to build the virtual brain.
(http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-56882-en.html)
Organization as Brain (modified for our school)
•
•
•
•
Both holographic and specialized (Morgan 73)
Leadership, PELICAN, Work Sampling, OUNCE, STAR Requirements shared
Distributed Leadership
Organizational Diversity
Brain Metaphor
Where we want to
move as an
organization…
References
• Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• The Blue Brain Project. Retrieved from
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-56882-en.html.