In my oh-so-Rotkäppchen way I had a bunch of items in my basket that had yet to be combined or observed in just the right way. One of them had just been added a couple of weeks ago when I made an observation to my “chiropractor”. I only put the label in quotes because while it is a title for which he has fully recognized credentials, he (like the others I’ve had to painstakingly find) is willing to treat his practice as practice and dedicates himself to discover new methods and approaches. They’re willing to embrace discovery to improve results for the varying needs of their clients. Why? Because they want to improve the results for the people they serve. They don’t want to waste their time or their patients.

There is an entire human anatomy system for which there is no recognized medical specialization: the muscular system. Good chiropractors know that there is an irreducible relationship between the skeletal and muscular systems. In the end they learn that a nearly unrecognized system is even more important to the other two: the human electrical system. The practice of healing requires the ‘reading’ of the current state of all three of these systems. This can only be done with a set of hands that can ‘read’ and interpret signs/signals and how these change as a result of certain impetuses (drawing any corollaries so far?).

On this particular day my chiropractor tried a couple of techniques I was familiar with but he had not previously used. I also recognized that he was combining techniques that were from decidedly different disciplines/philosophies. In combination they were phenomenally effective. As I questioned his sources of learning, he confirmed originations from different schools of thought. I reflected to him (in an expression of complete gratitude) that he was an extremely gifted synthesizer. I shared that the act of synthesis is the most critical skill for true innovation.

Yesterday, while thinking more deeply about emergence and its unique attributes, I flashed back to my synthesis observation with my doctor. I recalled being impressed that this attribute truly differentiates people whom I respect as thought leaders or as gifted practitioners. Sensing a significance in the correlation between emergence and synthesis, I started grabbing books from my desk and flipping to the index. Nothing…until I laid my hands on the ‘root’ of the concepts, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, and there it was: emergent synthesis. That was the term that literally defined the distinction of this book and its impact. It explained why I had been so captivated by the serendipitous events that brought these thinkers together and why I so strongly identified with their intellectual ostracism among their peers. It explains why I could not identify with any one professional organization but wanted to identify the common space between them all. It explains why I am so at home with Enterprise 2.0.

I’m a synthesizer.  2.0 thinking requires synthesis and analysis (the fundamental premise of ‘both’…the adaptive ‘middle’). Predominant cultures and methods embrace analysis, but not synthesis (we have Systems Analysts, not Systems Synthesizers). Most people are uncomfortable with embracing two opposites as a third state (and perhaps they hold suspect anyone who is more comfortable viewing the world in this way). Odd thing is, they readily embrace the results without realizing what it took to get them.

2.0 thinking is about shades of gray: paradigms that amalgamate polarities (black and white). It’s about recognizing that when you go from digits (0,1) to decimals (0.01, 0.001) you introduce an infinite number of possibilities.

It is a paradigm that more closely represents the complexity of reality and not the oversimplified representations we’ve forced it to ‘fit’ for the moment, because of the current ‘rules’ of some imperfect science (a misappropriation of a science in the first place, since a science is intended to adapt to new conditions and information).

It’s the total fusion of science as art and art as science. And its a far cry from business as usual.