What you see when you look in the mirror of your organisation

What is the best way to roll out a cannabis network? And what of this is relevant for ordinary businesses? How can you apply the science of complex systems, gained in organisations but also in immune systems, to our organisations? How do you get to know the network structure of your company? What do you see when you look in the organisation's mirror?

A head start by understanding the complex systems in an organisation

Peter Sloot, professor of complex systems and director of the Institute for advanced study in Amsterdam and Wendy van Ierschot, podcast maker for BNR, entrepreneur (VIE People) and investor (VIE Tech Capital) search in this podcast for the answer to the question: what can science about complex systems bring us for inspiration and how do we get a head start in ordinary business?

Using mathematical models, Peter Sloot claims to be able to make predictions about how processes will run in the future. The result is that you can intervene earlier and do things differently in your company before things go wrong.

Unwanted networks? This is how you roll them up.

Do you want to influence an undesirable network within your organisation? What is the best way to do so? A comparison with rolling up a cannabis network seems far removed from business, but is surprisingly applicable.

What does your mirror of the organisation look like?

Peter also talks about making a mirror of the organisation. What is the formal and informal structure of the organisation and how do they fit together? If you can quantify the mismatch between the formal and informal structure, it might be an indicator of the company's future success.

Do you want a mirror of your organisation or do you want to know more about the models that can predict the success of your organisation? Then contact Peter Sloot and listen to this episode of the Work Professor via your favourite podcast channel. Peter is also an advocate for more collaboration between business and science. The lack of a common language is often a barrier. This podcast helps with that. He calls for more of that collaboration: you can look at your business through a different lens, science can make predictions about the actions you plan for your business.

The tips from this podcast

If you want to roll up an unwanted network, look for the most difficult person to replace.
Steer better by making a mirror of your organisation, map the formal and informal structure and see how they fit together. How? We discuss this in the podcast.