Chapter 4: Distributed Intelligence

Organizations are being model after living systems because living systems exhibit distributed intelligence and are more adaptive to changing environment than are closed systems (machinery). Distributed intelligence refers to all members of the system (people or cells) playing a role in the system's ongoing self-organization. It fascinates me, and it also makes a lot of sense that we can look to learn from nature and from systems that already exist. The body is complex, and i.e. people/consumers trend can be complex. For example, I now understand better the role that a Salesperson and FAE (Field Application Engineer) play in a semiconductor company when they act as boundary spanners and ask the customer what new & improved product they would like to introduce to the market. The salesperson and FAE play a role in helping their company to adapt to the changing environment. I would describe their work as a "sneeze", meaning that they detect what will come next, allergy (good) or a cold (bad).