"SIMPLE RULES" FOR IMPROVING CORPORATE IQ: BASIC LESSONS FROM COMPLEXITY SCIENCE

Human and social capital developments are discussed in the context of increasing corporate IQ, defined as distributed intelligence (DI) in firms, as the basis of improved economic rent generation. A review of complexity science shows that adaptive tension dynamics (energy-differentials) may be used to foster adaptively efficacious DI appreciation. The optimal region for rapidly improving adaptive fitness occurs in the region in which emergent self-organization occurs—between the 1st and 2nd critical values of adaptive tension. Below the 1st value there is little change; above the 2nd value the system becomes chaotic and dysfunctional. Twelve "simple rules" drawn from complexity science are defined. These are available to rent-seeking CEOs wishing to create improved corporate IQ.