Proximity (time and space)
- Emergence happens in a complex system when many rich local interactions between actants exist
- The local and rich words are critical here
- If we go back to COVID-19, in most nations, there was an excellent response to the proximate threat of COVID-19, and people accepted the sacrifices, but Climate Change, which requires tremendous sacrifice, does not get attention as it is distant (although coming closer daily)
- In order to allow the national and international changes, you need (in a short election cycle) to change the dispositional state, which requires a focus on creating micro-sacrifices at a local level
- you make it proximate in both time and space.
- The local and rich words are critical here
- When the number of such changes reaches critical mass, the dispositional state will undergo a phase shift that will permit larger-scale changes
- I’ve illustrated this through the central issue for our time, but it applies to any organisation of any nature.. Closenge by and personal , is essential to sustainable change; change is bottom-up, although it may be stimulated top-down. From the leadership perspective, you need to see what the system can sustain rather than assuming you can work that out in advance. All of this has implications for virtual and physical working as we don’t get the same sensory input in a virtual environment as we do in a physical one, but measuring when people are in the office or mandating presence is not the solution; that type of draconian, context-free action will just distance you from those who work for you.
[DS] We respond to things that are close to us
