Thread by @commandodev

Just read this mind blowing piece of work on "Neural Annealing" opentheory.net/2019/11/neural…

There are some profound, incredible implications for individuals in here, but it also draws some threads of belief I have about teams and organisations together... \1

We can simplistically view the brain as a hierarchical organisation of overlapping systems. These subsystems exchange information and energy at varying frequencies and act as whole to adapt to its environment by minimising free energy (equivalent to surprise) \2

We can apply exactly the same lens to an organisation: hierarchical system of overlapping teams which exchange information and energy at varying frequencies and acts as whole to adapt to its environment by minimising free energy (evolving a sustainable business) \3

The article looks convincingly at various mental glitches as dysfunctions in the way the brain navigates changing energy states. Periodic transitions between high energy and low energy states break allow new patterns to laid down (and sub optimal ones to be overwritten) \4

Mike characterises this as the brain "playing down technical debt". Dysfunctions could include not going through this cycle frequently enough, the annealing process "settling" back into sub-optimal patterns and a few other pathways. \5

The article goes into considerable detail on a number of fascinating ways the functioning of the brain can get messed up, but there are two aspects I want to tease out as applied to organisations:

Social annealing and the idea of harmonic waves with different frequencies \6

Social annealing is how a tribe is formed. It's the expression of culture and social norms. I've experienced this first hand a when I joined the Royal Marines and went through basic training so having this new lens is fascinating! \7

Think about the implications for how we form and build teams, on board people and shift @TeamTopologies. It suddenly becomes a lot more clear why culture is so hard to influence and change! \8

Then we get to the scale free spectrum of what's referred to in the article as "harmonic waves". In organisational terms your could look at this a continuum of operational tempo. I like referring to these as the Strategic, Operational and Tactical domains. \9

This frequency or tempo decreases as you move inwards (or upwards) in the organisation. And exactly as higher frequency vibrations are localised in the areas of the brain, the higher tempo of multiple small teams has to be down sampled to interface with the higher layers. \10

Likewise, the strategic tempo of an organisation operates slower, and the "vibrations" (purpose, vision, strategy) *should* traverse the whole organisation. \11

So takeaways:

We need to address the whole spectrum of harmonics in order to effect lasting change.

Tools: #OODA, @swardley maps, @redteamthinking \12

Think about how you can inject the organisational equivalent of cognitive energy into your org. *AND* think about how you want to shape what you anneal towards.

Tools: @TeamTopologies, @nicolefv, @RealGeneKim and @jezhumble's research on Accelerate \13

Don't assume that you can simply apply some methodology to your org. The situation that you're in is likely to be much more akin to treating internalised trauma or PTSD. Act accordingly.

I'd REALLY love to explore these ideas more if anyone's working on similar areas!

\Fin