Archives: Ambiguity

En una sociedad mediática, las unidades básicas son las grandes “masas” colectivas. La sociedad red, sin embargo, está formada por individuos que establecen conexiones voluntarias con otros individuos, sea cual sea su ubicación. En una sociedad red, la red se convierte en la unidad básica de organización a todos los niveles (individuos, grupos u organizaciones). Las redes sociales virtuales, las redes de medios de comunicación y las redes tecnológicas actúan como catalizadores de la sociedad red. Continue reading →

Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said local authorities will have lost a third of their budget by 2015. And this is going to have serious implications for us all. so what does next look? Continue reading →

Principle 1 of No Straight Lines is Ambiguity. Or how does one deal with a more complex world? How does one ride on the edge of chaos? I summarise this in the following way. Continue reading →

Chapter 5 of No Straight Lines addresses this emerging issue of data. The reason is that the fastest data set revolution is being created by you, every time we text search travel buy we add to the data mountain some 2.5 billion gigabytes a day we, that’s all of humanity are collectively writing a new consciousness into existence. In fact the architecture of our own brain suggests the future of sentience may reside in a different kind of BIG. The question is how do we make meaning out of this data? How can data help us meet the challenges in our daily lives, challenges for our cities, for our changing climate, the ever increasing demand to better manage the resources we have? Continue reading →

In No Straight Lines I investigate the idea of what makes life worth living at a fundamental level. Why do we work, what is work, and more importantly what makes us as complete human beings as it quite clearly is not the current model. What price are we going to pay when we strip ourselves of the qualities that make us what we are? As Arnold Heertje argues we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. Continue reading →

In No Straight Lines, Charles Handy takes us on a journey of what he calls The Hungry Spirit. Handy introduces us to the African idea of the lesser and greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life; the goods and the services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question ‘why?’, for some understanding of what that life is for. Richard Tarnas argues You could say that a cosmology shapes everything that happens in a civilisation. You know, when Dante created in ‘The Divine Comedy’ the whole cosmology that combined the ancient Greek and the Christian universe into one, and that really reflected the whole civilisation’s sense of what it was about. The cathedrals aspiring to the heavens that were moved by the angels and God was looking over all and hell was down below. And we were poised between good and evil, between God and Satan. And you have native American cosmologies that are very different from the Hindu cosmology, etcetera.
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Climate scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have reported that extreme weather will become the new normal. Few countries are prepared for multiple disasters. Does the world need a new humanitarian international project that matches the $150 billion international space station in scope and ambition? A key goal would be to ensure that everyone has access to a mobile phone or data signal during a disaster. Continue reading →

The Bosco Verticale ‘eco-skyscrapers’ in Milan are described as urban forests in the sky, and will house as many trees as people. 50%+ of the world s population now live in cities so HOW DO WE bring the urban environment and nature closer together? Stefano Boeri Architects have been exploring the HOW. Continue reading →

In my journey of looking at how we create new, invigorating and regenerative ways of being, working, learning, I have increasingly become aware that the way that the language we use shapes our thinking and how we ultimately engage with the world. Continue reading →

Henry Jenkins interviews author Alan Moore: Through the years, we have remained in touch. Moore remains one of the most thoughtful people I have met — someone who reads broadly, who asks challenging questions, who is willing to explore alternative perspectives, and who is trying to construct his own theoretical model for the changes that are impacting our contemporary society. Continue reading →

As described in No Straight Lines – what we face in a complex challenging world is a design challenge. Here is a story of how without spending any money a group of highly motivated people came together from around the world with multiple-design skills and capability, to create what has become the cutting edge in crisis management, and a new radical design of NGO. This organisation is called Ushahidi. Continue reading →

2012 was the year No Straight Lines was launched. It felt like a very hard year after hardly taking a breath between the research, writing and production and then onto bringing an idea into the world. But the sum of the parts adds up to quite an interesting year. Continue reading →

Britain socially and culturally has been shaped by our responses to successive technologies, harnessing their potential to enable us to play a significant role on the worlds stage. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. If we want our towns and cities to hum along, if we want to educate our young to be truly part of the 21st Century, if we want to create jobs and meaningful work, create breakthrough science and pharma projects, a healthcare system that really works, if we want factories of the future that can create value globally then is time for us to be as great as our finest engineers, industrialists, innovators who sought ways of getting things done that were transformational for our society and our economy. A mindset of austerity will not get us to that place. It is time for us to use one of our greatest assets creative entrepreneurial expression and design for transformation. Continue reading →

An interview with HSM in Brazil about No Straight Lines. It is in Portuguese and you can download it here Continue reading →

Speaking at a number of events recently I have been asked, repeatedly whether large existing organisations can truly evolve and adapt sufficiently in volatile business conditions, and whether an organisation needs to be in deep crisis before they take the necessary radical steps. Continue reading →

This week I was invited to Shanghai to speak about the transformational design of businesses at Radical Design Week – Shanghai.

In the Heavy Metal Seminar (heavy industry rather than a debate about Metallica), my topic was car manufacturing and how with state of the art 3D fabrication tools, combined with networked participatory cultures and tools, insights into rapid innovation and build practices, a car company Local Motors can build cars five times faster at one hundred times less the capital cost and sell its first production vehicle The Rally Fighter at $79,000. This is radical transformational business design. Continue reading →

On the 7th November 2012 starting at 5.30pm I shall be giving an introductory talk about No Straight Lines at Waterstones in Cambridge.

Humanity shifts gear when it demands fundamental change to its real world circumstances and this moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society as a whole. So what does humanity want, and, how is this aspiration driving systemic change? Continue reading →

Insanely ambitious – or as Tony Judt asked why do we experience such difficulty even imaging a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? Continue reading →

I met Alan earlier in the week to talk about the book, which is about redesigning business models taking into account both the dramatic effects of digital technologies and the multiple crises – financial, environmental, social – crashing over western economies at present. It seemed quite an apt choice of reading material, having seen Danny Boyle’s brilliant vision of a Britain socially and culturally shaped by our responses to successive technologies. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. Continue reading →

Es difícil encontrar visionarios de esta calibre que sean capaces de plasmar con tal sencillez el cambio de paradigma actual que estamos viviendo. Continue reading →

This is a short story about a long journey, which explores the need to upgrade business to a human OS (human operating system), and maps out a navigation guide to a better business future. Continue reading →

No Straight Lines offers a plethora of examples of how societies and companies around the world are using technology in a collaborative and innovative way, bringing success to their economy and a meaningful connection between the members of the community. Moore successfully demonstrates how many businesses and institutions are locked in all levels of bureaucracy in an outdated and inflexible world vision and makes a strong case about why we should and how to use the tools we have to “effect change and challenge an ideology that’s proven to now be inappropriate for its time.” Continue reading →

Last night I settled in to listen In Business with BBC journalist Peter Day. What Innovation and transformation of people’s lives, economies, etc., is very much part of the No Straight Lines project as so I was thrilled to hear Professor Jaideep Prabhu from the Cambridge University Judge Business school and Professor Anil Gupta from the Indian Institute of Management talk about Jugaad Innovation. Jugaad is a Hindi word meaning an innovation; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and resourcefulness when faced with scarce resources. Continue reading →

Recently the Prime Minister’s Office let it be known that Prime Minister David Cameron sees Letchworth as a model community wanting to apply the principles of Garden Cities throughout the UK. So how do you exactly go about creating resilient, and sustainable communities for today’s world? Continue reading →

I am honoured that Tim Smit the man behind The Eden Project in Cornwall, got hold of a copy of my book, and sent me his take and personal perspective on why he thought it is valuable. Continue reading →

Letchworth the model community in David Cameron’s big society? Cameron says he wants to apply the principles of Garden Cities throughout the UK. There are indeed beautiful aspects to Letchworth, but I think its legacy has been squandered by those that claimed to be its protectors. Whilst at the same time architectural students and planners come from the world over to admire the vision of sustainable town planning and the worlds first ever roundabout. The question is how do we design and create sustainable communities in the 21st Century Continue reading →

The bitter public battle now being fought over the future of the NHS looks set to continue. Its future shape uncertain, and the mounting resistance that is so visceral is based upon fear, uncertainty and crucially a genuine lack of trust in those that claim to be guiding us to the best possible future the NHS. The Lancet in January 2011 agreed that the current system stifles innovation and that although vast sums have been invested in the NHS we have not seen the benefit delivered as valuable frontline services. So we need transformation. But the question is how do we get to that best possible future? How do we create a more sustainable NHS? Here are a couple of thoughts. Continue reading →

Peter Day hears from Alan Moore author of No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world and asks him ‘what next’ for the industrialised world. In his book he argues that the industrialised world is facing the combined problems of social, organisational and economic complexity. In this edition of Global Business he tells Peter Day how No Straight Lines interprets the disruptive trends shaping our world and how companies can address the challenges and move onwards and upwards. Continue reading →

We are getting some great feedback for No Straight Lines. So here is a small collection of what people have said about the book and project. Continue reading →

What Alan Moore does really effectively is create a bridge from this thinking to the observations and thoughts of people like Seth Godin, Stephen Pressfield, Derek Sivers and John Hagel to paint a picture of how to add the “What” and “How” to the very large “Why” he describes. The book is well written, thoroughly researched and is a great base refence source for those of us interested in and committed to helping enable the change he foresees Continue reading →

A short video introducing some of the core themes of the book No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear worldf Continue reading →

using agile software development, modular design, and rapid prototyping, the WikiSpeed car development team, developing a 100 MGP car for the Automotive X-Prize, has achieved an extraordinary compression of development time Continue reading →

A short story about an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone with an inquiring mind Continue reading →

A 13min interview in which I explain the thinking behind No Straight Lines, why that changes how we think about the design of organisational capability, economics, commerce and society and WHY – that as significant implications for in this instance marketers. I use LEGO, and threadless as two very good examples of what I mean. Continue reading →

What do these have in common?

A car company built around a global community as an organisation, enabled by combining flex manufacturing techniques, open source platforms, open legal frameworks and social communication technologies premised upon cooperation, fuelled by the desire to be a great company and green; that can build cars 5 times faster at 100 times less the capital costs. A crisis management platform and organisation born out of the Kenyan post-election crisis of 2008 that can record critical information of events unfolding on the ground via a blend of location-based data, eyewitness accounts and mobile telephony, from often hard to reach places which visualises those unfolding events so that others can act and direct action at internet speeds. And now utilised for free in many parts of the world. Or, the largest organic diary farm in Britain, that has evolved a methodology that allows it to remain autonomous, profitable and sustainable in a market that is acutely volatile, because large-scale agricultural farming is mostly run on an oil-based economy, plus diary farmers are at the calculating mercy of the marketing needs and whimsies of large chain supermarkets. Continue reading →

Nice to see NO Straight Lines making it to discerning readers bookshelves. Continue reading →

When faced with an ambiguous world some move into that world, and embrace it to understand it, listen deeply and think very hard about transformation – how to transform, how to design for transformation. This is a very hard thing to do and few do it well. I am sure we are all a little sad of the passing of Kodak. Continue reading →

There are 6 challenges I believe that organisations have to navigate to thrive in a non-linear world. These are: [1] How do organisations of all creeds deal with a more complex and increasingly ambiguous world? [2] How do those organisations … Continue reading →

Dear Steve Hoffman, Thank you Founders Space for kindly hosting my post [The NEXT Silicon Valley is not a place it’s a platform] on the possibilities of crowdfunding for entrepreneurs.

‘Anyone worried about where business is going in today’s chaotic world – and everyone concerned with where it should be going – must read No Straight Lines Continue reading →

The whole spectrum of sciences, including vitally important areas such as cleantech, life sciences and biotech, and engineering, is facing extreme upheaval, particularly related to the funding of scientific research. In an overall difficult economic situation, cuts by governments in the area of blue-skies research and less funding available from corporates have created an environment in which the funding of science that is not immediately of commercial value is seen as unnecessary, imprudent, and wasteful. OK – so how do we solve that? Continue reading →

It wont be the banks, and it wont be the VC’s – so WHAT’s NEXT for the funding of innovative and entrepreneurial companies – that small spark which fires nascent, embryonic companies into life? How do we fast track those companies to maturity? As right now faced with the increasing speed it seems of the decay of an old industrial system all countries need more startups. Continue reading →

Scientific discovery by its very nature pushes new boundaries. In so doing, it asks questions of ourselves, our humanity, our ethical perspectives. It cantilevers multiple reactions and forces us into ambiguous places. But we should not take fundamentalist views and perspectives because without scientific discovery we diminish ourselves Continue reading →

You are suddenly faced with commercial extinction – almost overnight – you are hemorrhaging cash, and you have no idea what is going on. How does a company and organisation transition from one successful operational and commercial model which is now failing, to another which currently is ambiguous and emergent? Continue reading →

On BBC Radio 4 today the food programme explored how we are at the adaptive edge of how we farm and retail food. With growing economies like China we are beginning to be squeezed by the needs and demands of other countries. In the BBC 4 programme Dan Saladino explores how higher food prices are changing what we buy and how we eat. From increases in food related crime to shortages of ingredients, he asks, what else is in store? Continue reading →

It is interesting that Africa is innovating in mobile and tech in extraordinary ways – simply because of, the hunger to make for a better life, and, to use what is available to hand, even though constrained. Constraint fires the imagination. Continue reading →

How does mobile communications enhance, and enable enterprise, communities, organisations, even governments, to become more effective, to become more lightweight, agile and connected? And what are the 7 questions organisations should be asking themselves? Continue reading →

Is it the case that NHS  / Patient Data is for sale? Could we make for a better NHS if we learn’t how to use and design with data properly? What could be the multiple benefits for that? Andy Burnham, … Continue reading →

PKB is a case history in No Straight Lines. What Mohammad has created is a service and platform that empowers people with chronic healthcare problems to better manage their own healthcare in participation with clinicians. Its benefits are indeed multifaceted. Continue reading →

No Straight Lines and the rise of the Human Operating System (OS). Faced with organisational and institutional failure we are connecting up to and across each other to create a new human operating system that will challenge existing sources of power and control.
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In November 2011 retailer Mothercare reported devastating financial losses dipping some £80m into the red. There is no doubt we are in hard economic times – but there is more to this story. As Executive chairman Alan Parker, made the … Continue reading →