Sensible+Organisation

=Sensible Organisation =  Consideration of social learning in the Complex Domain has led us into unexplored territory that we now refer to as Sensible Organisation. Looking at collected publications of Leoni and her team it was obvious that the amount of effort that organisations put into increasingly complex command and control just doesn’t make sense: hence the need for sensible organisation. The most recent position piece that Leoni and the Stars were collaborating on began to unpack the notion of sensible organization along the following themes. 1. Knowledge / Learning – creating and empowering action and growth 2. Task / Activity - as the unit of analysis for innovation 3. Connectivity / Communication - of the global, digitally-enabled, networked community  4. Teams / Groups - the locus of creativity and innovation 5. Cooperation / Competition – most activities are a dialectic of both 6. Tools / Infrastructure – supporting and enabling action and learning

The fascinating way forward into sensible organisation involves recognising how these themes weave together in what happens in complex reality First, the key importance of teams and groups, the //teams/groups// theme, the need for a more cooperative culture in the traditionally competitive culture of the military, the // co-operation/competition // theme, and the developing notion of //social learning// as one keystone of the sensible organization each have practical implications for all organisations who need to build capabilities for flexible adaptation in uncertain, complex and evolving contexts. This approach allowed us to develop an understanding of how thinking and doing combine on the job, leading us to nominate the notion //knowledge work// as a //complex// phenomena and a second keystone of the sensible organization. Finally, we now understand the importance of developed interconnectivity and communication support for team-based //experiential learning// (learning by doing), representing a combination of the first 4 themes. This understanding underpins our notion of network-centric organisational arrangements of adaptable self-directed workgroups that sit among more traditional hieratical structures. In this context, //experiential learning// is essentially a social process and when it occurs in groups, and through interaction and communication, it is a key form of //social learning//. Where employees are asked to cooperate on a //collective knowledge work activity// all six themes come into play and work teams are allowed to be self organisation and self-directed. They should be managed in a safe fail way where they can experiment and learn from mistakes. An approach which incorporates aspect of play can be used to raise consciousness of the emerging skills, capabilities and connectedness that underpin human activity in sensible organization.

The sensible organization agenda includes: 1. Understanding where problems are located (E.g in ordered, unordered or disordered Cynefin domains) and where we wish them to be located in the future (e.g. Do we want to automate the processes?) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Recognizing the context to be complex, dynamic, uncertain and ambiguous as in an ecosystem that integrates the six themes. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 3. Using appropriate ways to understand problems and situations such as the Cynefin sense-making framework <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. Using suitable tools (e.g. social media, games and simulations) chosen and adapted by the worker, not imposed and constrained by management, and exploiting socio-technical systems as enablers of sensible organization <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">5. Using applied research as a source of knowledge to build capabilities for sensible organization and contexts that facilitate emerging sensible organization into the future.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reference **
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Hasan, H., Warne L., and Linger H. (2007) The Sensible Organization: A new agenda for IS research, CD //Proceedings of ICIS 2007// Montreal. []
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