No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world

Coming home:

This is something of an emotional milestone for me, an emotional coming home.

As Tomi wrote - we set up Communities Dominate Brands - the blog when we published the book of the same name. We had no idea what would happen - but it became an extraordinary platform to connect with a global community. And in fact is now voted in the Forbes No.1 read blogs on mobile.

There came a point however where I felt I could not continue for reasons that were personal as well as professional. My dismay over 6 years of watching media / mobile and business organisations systemically destroy themselves (Tomi has a point of view on this) as we migrated from a linear to a non-linear world was overwhelming.

My turning point was an infamous meeting with the largest regional newspaper group in the UK, plus multiple engagements with Nokia and other major mobile and media players - where one could see these incumbents were driving down the road to oblivion. And of course they were not the only ones. Why I asked myself should I run a business trying to help those that can't help themselves?

So I went on a journey

A road less travelled

As I continued to research the evolution of the media and the commercial communication environment, I had a dawning realisation that what I was witnessing was something deeper, more profound and epochal. It was in fact a communications revolution with deep social undercurrents that are having and will have a profound effect on every touch point of our society and our daily lives. And there is no doubt that technology, particularly communications technology, can be wielded as a powerful agent of social and political change. But we seem to have arrived at a crossroads, and this makes me fearful that too few truly understand the underlying reasons for what’s happening now or the implications of what happens next. Too many companies are locked into a linear system, a framework and model that only allows them to look at and engage with the world in a particular fashion. And this communications revolution is not about just companies and organisations; it is about us – you, I and society per se.

The death and life of eco-systems

We are witnessing the death and life of two very different eco-systems - one which we started to describe in Communities Dominate Brands - and which is now truly redefining our world.

No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world

The result of that journey is the publication of a new book NO Straight Lines: making sense of our nonlinear world -

In brief I explain the project

We have arrived at the edge of the adaptive range of our industrial world. At the edge, because that world, our world is being overwhelmed by a trilemma of social, organisational and economic complexity. We are in transit from a linear world to a non-linear one. Non-linear because it is for all of us socially, organisationally and economically ambiguous, confusing and worrying. Consequently we are faced with an increasingly pressing and urgent problem, WHAT COMES NEXT? And also we are therefore presented with a design challenge: HOW do we create better societies, more able organisations and, more vibrant and equitable economies relevant to the world we live in today? No Straight Lines presents a new logic and inspiring plea for a more human centric world that argues we now have the possibility to truly transform our world, to be more resilient, to be more relevant to us both personally and collectively, socially cohesive, sustainable, economically vibrant and humane, through the tools, capabilities, language and processes at our fingertips.

You can find the book online at Amazon.

Jo Pine author of The experience Economy and Infinite Possibility writes  ‘Anyone worried about where business is going in today’s chaotic world – and everyone concerned with where it should be going – must read No Straight Lines. Alan Moore has captured what is happening, but more importantly provides prescriptions for what individuals, companies, and society should do about it to create a better world’.

A little intro:

  

Its good to be home.

you can follow me on twitter @alansmlxl

 

 

Comments

[cycnus]

Hi alan,

I really wondering if you were suggesting that Microsoft (Steve Balmer) were sabotaging Nokia/Symbian/QT because it's try to be open source? and also suing Android for the same cause?

btw,.....
Welcome back...

[Alan Moore]

It was Ballmer raging against open source - well, open everything. He is saying that he sees the world through a particular lens, a way of operating. He is saying you are with us, closed patent systems, OR against us open source, building on the work of others, Linux, networked world.

Whereas I argue, (and its a principle of NO Straight Lines) that openness is resilience, openness creates and stimulates economies and organisational capability it allows for adaptation.

If you can't see that possibility as Ballmer did not he will make strategic choices for Micosoft that ultimately would hurt the company.

[Alan Moore]

And thx for the welcome!

[cycnus]

Hi alan,

Thank you for answering.

Actually, I'd written a comment on this blog almost a year ago when Elop announcing a strategic partnership with Microsoft. Tomi wrote, I paraphrase, that Elop for nokia best could ask Microsoft that QT should be ported to WP... I wrote that for MS QT as open source is a virus. At that time, I have no idea that Balmer saying in public that Linux is communist.... May I know when Ballmer say this?? Thank you.

Another thing is, I use linux on daily basis because i'm a computer enthusiast (and now mobile devices enthusiast). I love the easy of use, no serial number for installation, etc. But I never hear from any one that were categorize as professional (or even visionary) suggesting that openness (open source??) could stimulates economies. IMHO microsoft is a dinosaur that were on the line of extinction. But, so far, when I read article from (American) journalist, they always quote open source is a flux and is dying. So I was wondering, if you talk about this in your book maybe with number, statistic, etc?

Thanks.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Congratulations Alan!

Welcome back and what a fantastic book, on quick view this seems even stronger than your second book, Social Media Marketing, and clearly Alan you are constructing a whole new philosophy for the business environment for the future. I will post some quick thoughts in a couple of days and a full book review when I have read the book. Not surprisingly, even as I know a lot of the story you tell, this book is so packed with insights and significant observations that (just like CDB) it can't be read in one sitting haha..

And hey, people commenting here, lets try to keep to Alan's book themes, ok? Alan you can see the blog is very much now focused on mobile and its current hot theme: smartphones.

Congrats Alan, really! A new book is always great cause to celebrate

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Alan Moore]

This is the book / project I have poured all of my effort and passion into Tomi.

[Alan Moore]

Hi cycnus,

Open source is not dying - I don't have a stat to hand - but IBM and others run on open source Linux, there are movements dedicated to building open source - as well as the concept of open networked collaboration that I explore in No Straight Lines.

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