Bruce LaRue

Carlos Valdesuso and Dr. Bruce LaRue standing in front of the countryside on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro

Dr. Bruce LaRue, who teaches Epistemology and Systems Thinking for AGS, was recently invited by Carlos Valdesuso, a veteran Adizes practitioner and doctoral candidate at AGS, to speak in Brazil. At an event arranged for his presentations, Dr. LaRue spoke at the Sao Paulo Chamber of Commerce and did a televised interview for Luiz Guilherme, President, APIMEC Rio. Dr. LaRue explored with his audience emerging strategies, practices, and technologies for surviving and thriving in the new green economy. Dr. LaRue stated:

“Brazil stands at a crossroad in their history and in the future of the world. It has the unique opportunity to recognize and learn from the successes and mistakes of other Nations.  As Brazil takes its place of prominence in the emerging multi-polar world of global commerce, it can learn from both the successes of the West, and also the consequences of some misguided priorities. As citizens, civic and business leaders, we are called upon to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.”

Drawing from his exposure to both Adizes and Spiral dynamics methodologies, and others in his decade-long consulting career, Dr. LaRue said,

“The pattern and structure in a leaf is like the structures and policies of an organization or society.  They create the  framework that determines the direction of growth, while sensing and adapting to environmental cues.

Businesses, like organisms, must learn to sense and appropriately adapt to changes in their environment. What makes human institutions unique is that they not only adapt to their environment but they adapt their environment to  themselves.

We find ourselves today adapting to second and third order effects of changes that we ourselves have created in our world.  Our current situation did not emerge by chance, but arose as the result of largely unconscious assumptions and beliefs that shaped social and economic policy. Some of these effects have been positive while others have been so destructive that they threaten to undermine the existence of humankind on this planet.

We can choose to remain locked in a debate between left versus right; liberal versus conservative; business versus the environment — or we can begin to rethink and re-examine the assumptions and values that led us to where we are today. It is only then that we can chart a sensible and sustainable course for the road ahead. ”

In his complementary workshop, Strategy Deployment in the Knowledge-Based Organization: Leveraging knowledge for competitive advantage in a multi-polar world, Dr. LaRue looked at the principles of non-linear, systemic change processes that have barely begun to fill cracks in traditional management practices.  He noted that we are shifting into “the new ‘knowledge economy’ where human intelligence, creativity and insight become the key resource of organizations. As such, we can expect the ideas and principles involved in creating brain-like organizations to become more of a reality in modern organizations.”

Dr. LaRue feels that the knowledge-based networked organizations of tomorrow will be unrecognizable to us today. For more information on Dr. LaRue’s work, visit his website.