That’s it! This is the final part of the Fourth Revolution manifesto. It is a personal appeal to YOU. What will you choose? The world needs you. Find out why you are important for the Fourth Revolution, and how you can contribute. in part 8 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – now online.
Morpheus: The Fourth Revolution is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your computer. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the Industrial World that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
the matrix choice
Morpheus: That you are a slave of your mindset, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Fourth Revolution is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember – all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.
Freely adapted from The Matrix (written by Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski)
So, are you ready for the Fourth Revolution? Which pill do you choose?…
The “law of requisite variety” is a fundamental insight in our world. It is not well known. It should be recognized as a fundamental new insight that changes our understanding or the world.
The law itself comes from cybernetics – the study of systems controlled with feedback loops. Articulated in 1948 by Ashby, it states in its original form “only variety can destroy variety”. To be effective, the control system needs to have more variety than the perturbations of system it controls.
It has been taken up under a slightly different form in the 1970’s by the initiators of NLP – neuro-linguistic programming. In their words, “the actor with the greatest flexibility of behavior will ultimately control the system“.
In other words, the most flexible and adaptable actor will dominate.
We now know that most systems in our world – climate, biology, society – are systems controlled by feedback loops. This law should then apply to most of our world.
Darwin’s theory is but the application of this law to biology. Darwin’s theory is that the species most adapted to its environment will thrive. That does not just mean a static adaptation like the color of the bird or the shape of its beak. It also means, the level of dynamic adaptability, of flexibility.
That humans have come to dominate most of their environment and the rest of the ecosystem is not because they are the strongest or physiologically the most adapted – it is because they are the most flexible and adaptable thanks to their intelligence.
Let’s now take this insight into the field of economics and society. The most adaptable and flexible will eventually dominate.
For organizations it means that flexibility and adaptability is a primordial condition for success. For institutions and governments also. The natural tendency to create organizations and institutions that try to freeze a situation to their benefit is doomed in the long term.
The quest for success should be to seek to enhance the flexibility and the adaptability of organizations and institutions rather than devise all sorts impediments to change.
It is also applicable on a personal level. To thrive, you need to be more flexible and adaptable than the world around you.
So, when do you start practicing that fundamental skill – flexibility?
Now that we have investigated in depth the Fourth Revolution and how it will change the world, we can now focus on what will make individuals successful. Find out four keys to personal success in the Collaborative world in part 7 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – now online.
Don’t hesitate to comment and bring in suggestions in the comments to this blog post!
Can’t wait to see the conclusion? Next week, in the final part of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto we’ll finally discuss your choice – and why you are important for the Fourth Revolution.
A fundamental assumption of the Industrial Age is determinism. The fact we can’t change our character and our intelligence. The fact that our destiny is determined by some our characteristics at birth.
The shape of our face would determine our character (luckily, that particular theory was dropped at the end of the 19th century). Our genes would determine our destiny – leadership capability would be inherited (that particular theory lasted longer – until the second half of the 20th century).
Our capabilities were supposed to be fixed at birth, and we could not do anything about it – a great example is the IQ (invented at the beginning of the 20th century). The one who is born dumb stays dumb. The one lucky to be born intelligent stays intelligent. And their social destiny would be fixed by the measure of IQ.
Now since a very few decades we know that does not work. Multiple intelligences, amongst which emotional intelligence, are better predictors of social success than IQ. Chaos theory shows that we can shape our destiny.
But, more forcefully, we now know we can change our intelligence. Like training the body, it takes hard work and long practice, but it is possible to significantly alter our brains, to change their wiring. In summary, to change our intelligence (and, if we don’t maintain enough exercise, that might even lead to diminishing it).
changes to the brain due to meditation
Thanks to the recent ability to measure brain activity in living people (using tools based on Quantum Physics), studies have shown that people with a long practice in meditation (more than 10,000 hours) have a significantly different brain activity compared to people with low experience.
So, what can we take from this? Exercising the brain needs to be done, and enhancing the capabilities of the brain can be done. Like for the body, it takes time and effort, consistent and regular practice, but the change can be substantial. Like for the body, there are multiple types of exercise and schools of practice, but the overall result is very similar. Typical exercises revolve around mastering our internal spontaneous chatter, overcoming the mental patterns that alter our perception of reality, mastering emotions and enhancing our creativity.
So, when do you start exercising your brain for a few minutes every day?
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
When do you start doing those things that you will regret not to have done, twenty years from now? Why do you postpone doing them to tomorrow, next month or next year?
Start today!
And, when will you stop doing all the things that have no importance and that you won’t remember, nor anybody, twenty years from now?
Four Institutions will be deeply transformed – manufacturing, government and representative democracy, education and intellectual property. Find out how they will be transformed in part 6 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – now online.
Don’t hesitate to comment and bring in suggestions in the comments to this blog post!
Can’t wait to see the follow-up? Next week, in part 7 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto we’ll finally uncover FOUR KEYS TO SUCCESS IN THE COLLABORATIVE AGE!
As part VI of the manifesto is due to be published this week-end on the “institutions revolution” this blog offers a retrospective on a few blogs published by The Fourth Revolution Manifesto on the transformation of institutions
It shows how very recent neuroscience findings (1990 onwards), using the new technologies of non-invasive brain imagery (a result of the new theories of physics like quantum mechanics that are the precursor of the Fourth Revolution), give incredible insights on the operation of body and mind. That when communication exists between human beings, we automatically empathize.
Thanks to the new long distance interactive communication technology, we can empathize with the whole of humankind, with the whole world. The fundamental consciousness shift that is occurring today as a result will change the world, because our family is extended to the entire humankind and beyond.
We empathize with people at the other end of the globe that are suffering hardship. We give to causes that are entirely alien to our daily life, to fight poverty or hunger at the other end of the globe.
Are you ready to look at humankind as just one single family?
The new recipe for an organization’s success is simple. Simple and so powerful.
It starts with P for Purpose. The organization needs a compelling purpose. Compelling means able to create an emotional connection. And not just for those who work inside the organization, for a network of supporters and followers as well.
The next ingredient is R for Radical. The organization needs to be radical in choosing its areas of activity, its customers, its employees, its contributors, its suppliers. The successful organization knows how to say no. It knows how to take the less traveled path.
The two remaining ingredients are familiar to those who follow this blog. It is O for Open and F for Fluid. The organization needs to be in a close synergy with the outside world, exchanging both ways. Its organization needs to be fluid, flexible, adaptable.
That’s not all. You also need a little bit of IT for Information Technology. The terminology is a bit inappropriate. It should be more “Knowledge enhancing technology”. It is usually referred to as IT so we will stick with that denomination.
Put everything together, mix well, give some emotional heat without overheating, and what do you get?
P-R-O-F-IT. As simple as that!
So, when does your organization start to express a Purpose that can be emotionally moving, be Radical in its day-to-day behavior, and Open and Fluid? That’s worth it!
