Introduction
Complexity theory has been used extensively in the field of strategic management and organizational studies. It is used in these domains for understanding how organizations or firms adapt to their environments. The theory treats organizations and firms as collections of strategies and structures. When the organization or firm shares the properties of other complex adaptive systems - which is often defined as consisting of a small number of relatively simple and partially connected structures - they are more likely to adapt to their environment and, thus, survive. Complexity-theoretic thinking has been present in strategy and organizational studies since their inception as academic disciplines.3.3 CIRCULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR COHERENCE
The circular architecture is the effort to deliver the right solution to the right person on the right place at the right time as show in the following coherence model. Chinese culture archive coherence by adopting the Wu-Xing model [China, 1000 AD ]. It has been used in medication, martial art, music, Society , political system and astronomy for many thousand year. Independently, Tom Grave have also use the five elements model in the Real Enterprise-Architecture[ Grave, 2007].
Figure 9. Coherence model
EA achieve enterprise excellence by establishing a coherent enterprise environment akin to an ecosystem. Although the term of “Coherence” is not very well specified in a scientific model, It does not stop the ancient western and eastern culture to practice the philosophy of coherence.
The study of complex systems has made major inroads in the mathematical world but fewer inroads in the realm of people and organizations. Part of the lack of progress involves difficulties in traversing from an abstract theoretical or probability based set of models to the perceived “real” world of humans, organizations, actors, emotions, and events. Managers are trained to act on simplicity and an attempt to control their environment simplicity and control are the opposite of complexity and complex systems. Complexity involves a multi-dimensional ecology of world and consciousness, objects and perception, opportunities and language. This multidimensional world is very different from the efficiency based, profit maximizing, cost minimizing, customer satisficing world of management. Management in this world is perhaps best labeled as “coherence seeking” – where coherence is as defined by Antonovsky in 1979: “The extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic, feeling of confidence that one’s environment is predictable and that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected.” Antonovsky suggests that coherence is marked by comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. Indeed, these three qualities are also the “holy grail” in the study of complexity. [Michael R. Lissack] The Institute for the study of Coherence and Emergence.
LEA adapt to change by
. Preparing the static to support the dynamic
. Adapting to change coherently
. Adapting to change in time of need.
preparing the static elements of the enterprise. Although Enterprise change constantly with ticking time, there are a set of enterprise primitives whcih change gradually which is considered as the static infrasture of the Enterprise.
Coherence is the criteria in addapting to change. Coherence is a holistic ballance in a organic enterprise. It is defined in the dictionary as:
"The quality or state of cohering, especially a logical, orderly, and aesthetically consistent relationship of parts."
As Elijah Millgram reports, the idea of coherence has received widespread use in many areas of philosophy.(1) He argues that coherentist approaches have suffered from a woeful lack of specification of what coherence is and of how we can tell whether one theory in science, or ethics, or everyday life is more coherent than another.
Industry have used influence diagram for decision making to achieve the enterprise coherence. The challenge is that the influence diagram approach frequently produce complicate hair ball beyond practical purpose.
LEA adopt the Wu-Xing model which is a meta model of enterprise influence diagram.
Adapting to change in time of practical need.
This chapter decribe the LEA approach to adapt change in:
1. Coherent performance analyis
2. Performance based strategic planning.
3. Segment Architecture
4. Investment management
5. Envision the future of change
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Circular Coherence Architecture
THE CIRCULAR ARCHITECTURE
Coherency Management is the primary outcome goal of Enterprise Architecture (EA); that the architecture of enterprises should be formalized and promote coherency” by Gary Doucet, John Gotze, Pallab Saha and Scott Bernard.
This paper represents a significant point of evolution in thought and practice about the design andmanagement of complex enterprises that often exist inhighly dynamic, sometimes chaoticoperating environments. The paper asserts that Coherency Management is the primary outcome goal of Enterprise Architecture (EA); that the architecture of enterprises should be formalized and promote coherency; and the best way to do this is to adopt EA as the ongoing, overarching method for abstracting, analyzing, designing, and re-engineering new and existing enterprises – regardless of the market, industry, or government sector that the enterprise belongs to. EA is about more than technology as it now has strategic and business dimensions – all of which must align to create agility and assurance in promoting transformation and delivering value. The paper discusses three modes of EA, namely Foundation Architecture, Extended Architecture and Embedded Architecture, that represent progression in thought and practice, with emphasis that the modes are independent but not necessarily mutually exclusive. The paper also discusses how collectively these influence enterprise coherency. The paper concludes by elaborating the ways and approaches to assess organizational coherence.
Coherency management has three fundamental outcomes:
• Alignment - a term that addresses the need for similarity in EA methods at all levels/areas of the architecture, and an important concept for complex enterprises that are composed of a number of lines of business and business functions that have competing priorities and limited resources.
• Agility - a term that addresses an enterprise's ability to manage change, and a concept that is an essential element for the survival of enterprises that have to operate in dynamic environments where change is constant and windows for important opportunities now open and close in hours, days, and weeks; and customer expectations are driven by increasing choices in providers and access to best-of-breed service delivery; as well as new technologies that improve many facets of every day life.
• Assurance - a term that addresses control, and a concept that speaks to confidence and fidelity in the sources and use of enterprise products and services, as well as the resources that create them.
While alignment, agility, and assurance are the outcomes of managing coherence, the means for achieving this is the use of EA as a methodology.
Journal of Enterprise Architecture – May 2008
Wu-Xing is used to model a holistic but simple influence diagram.
Human centric A critical concern is the model must be human centric to support the human limitation. Under the rule of magic seven, it should be withing the number of 7 plus or minus 2 based on the rule of magic seven.
Keep it simple The other criteria is to keep it simple without adding complication. It is human nature to add more complxity to distinguish themself. In EA practice, many people want to add more columen to the Zachman framework. It is also expected to see many people want to add many more information to the simple Wu-Xing model. The effort to complicate the model defeat the purpose of keep it simple.
LEA leverage on Wu-Xing to keep holistic analysis simple.
Wu-Xing keep holistic analysis simple via analogical reasoning
The old Wu-Xing model is better explained in with moden theory on analogical resoning. Wisegeek explain what is analogical reasoning as following:
Analogical reasoning is a method of processing information that compares the similarities between new and understood concepts, then uses those similarities to gain understanding of the new concept. It is a form of inductive reasoning because it strives to provide understanding of what is likely to be true, rather than deductively proving something as fact. Analogical reasoning can be used by both children and adults as a way to learn new information or as part of a persuasive argument.
The reasoning process begins by a person determining the target domain, or the new idea to be learned or explained. It is then compared to a general matching domain, or an idea that is already well-understood. The two domains must be similar enough to make a valid, substantial comparison. Specific qualities are chosen that belong to the matching domain, then related items are searched for in the target domain to tie the two domains together. For example, food’s effect on the human body can be an analogy to gasoline’s effect on a car because they are both responsible for making entities function correctly.
Analogical reasoning is based on the brain’s ability to form patterns by association. The brain may be able to understand new concepts more easily if they are perceived as being part of a pattern. If a new concept is compared to something the brain already knows, it may be more likely that the brain will store the new information more readily.
The study of the process and effectiveness of analogical reasoning is applied to many fields. Since analogies demonstrate the likelihood of similarities rather than factually proving them, lawyers may use analogical arguments during cases that don’t have a lot of evidence. An analogical argument points out a similarity shared by two ideas or objects, then uses that shared similarity to argue that the ideas are likely to have other things in common as well. For example, a lawyer may form an analogy between his or her client and a past court trial for the same offense where the person was found not guilty. Since the circumstances of the charges are similar, a lawyer will argue the outcomes should be similar as well.
The field of science also uses analogical reasoning, but it is used for coming up with new concepts rather than for persuasion. Scientists will often compare a proven scientific process with an unproven one to form hypotheses to base new research on. They may reason that because two processes are similar in one way, they may be more likely to have more things in common.
Psychologists often focus on the cognitive aspects of analogical reasoning. They may perform research to determine how and why the brain retains information through analogies. Psychologists may also study the differences between how children and adults use analogies.
The expliicit Wu Xing model
Example 1 to establish an explicit coherence model for business management from the aspect of Research, Product, People, Marketing and Capital. From this model, it is clear that keeping the equilibrium is way to achieve business excellence.
Example 2 the Coherence Model for War: It is a decision making tool for a war. From this model, it is clear that focus on military gain will run the risk of wining the battle but lost the war. The way to win to war is to have a strategy between military action, stability, people, culture and economy.
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