THE SCIENCE BEHIND BREAKTHROUGH SYNTHESIS
Part One and Part Two contain biological discoveries and theories by the author resulting from extensive executive interviews, examinations, and experimentations which applied scientific method to the lives of individual executives and, especially, multinational executives. This has resulted in a new biologically maximized modus operandi for human beings that bypasses cultural interference.
This new way of operating prescribes full integration into biological mechanisms and processes inside and outside of us which have evolved to work together synergistically but which have been culturally overruled. I have created a link to material that hints at some relevant science to explain in laymen’s terms what enables the breakthrough synthesis to work. Hopefully, this brief description will suffice until separate articles may be written with more details about the relevant scientific discoveries. At minimum, it will provide the terminology that those who are interested may research to learn more.
Relevant biological processes
In brief, the following touch on how the maximizing machinery provides the information fuel for the breakthrough synthesis to generate quantum leaps in new information that may define new career highs for you:
1 Power for the maximizing machinery: There is an unending dance of systems re-maximizing to a contextual system changed by other systems which in turn were forced to re-maximize when their context was changed by other systems re-maximizing and so on endlessly.
2 Information source: The information fuel for new information systems comes from the raiding of information pieces from synergistic systems to enable a system to re-maximize to its changing contextual system. These information pieces are re-combined again using the breakthrough synthesis on which everything in this article relies.
3 Grouping of information sources: Spontaneous self-organizing or sudden ordering of the larger contextual system groups us with the best synergy partners from which to source information fuel to re-maximize. This sudden leap to order systems for synergies will improve their mutual chances of survival. Complexity theory is relevant to the re-ordering of this complex contextual system.
4 Information access: The information to be re-combined for the breakthroughs appears as coincidences or co-maximizations in one’s immediate context or reality. It is the grouping of synergistic systems noted in point 3 that causes clusters of relevant coincidences of information to emerge in one’s life. The more one is maximized (in top-talent flow, for example) and being orchestrated by the maximizing machinery, the greater the number and value of the coincidences experienced.
5 Information re-mix – information creation – information quantum leaps: The process of emergence is behind the breakthrough synthesis. It is what causes information pieces to be re-combined nonlinearly to generate leaps to new wholes which are greater than the sum of their parts. It is the means to adapt to the continuous contextual changes of the dance. A collection of systems are orchestrated by biological spontaneous order or self-organizing principles to pool their resources so that they may each maximize their respective systems for survival. This information re-mix to create new information which will enable systems to adapt is the essence of the work of the maximizing machinery and its component systems of systems.
6 Goal attainment and problem-solving: By using the same self-ordering and emergence mechanisms, it is possible to change the information structure of one’s personal system so that peripheral elements of your maximizing formula change. This maximizing formula change will then group you with different synergy partners who will share information more relevant to your new goal. The clusters of coincidences now in your reality will be relevant to your new maximizing formula based on your information structure revised for your new goal. These quantum leaps to sudden knowledge will help you to achieve goals or solve problems by applying the breakthrough synthesis.
Relevant scientific definitions
Self-organization is one of the ideas, models and techniques bundled together as the sciences of complexity. It refers to systems that appear to organize themselves without external direction, manipulation, or control. Self-organization can be defined as the spontaneous creation of a globally coherent pattern out of local interactions. Self-organizing mechanisms common to biological systems create order from disordered systems using the process of emergence. Self-organized order is a spontaneous pattern from within. It is a product of the generic properties of living matter itself.
Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multitude of simple interactions. In evolutionary theory, emergence is defined as the rise of a system that cannot be predicted or explained from antecedent conditions. A grouping develops properties that none of its members has. The brain is an example of an emergent biological structure. Neither individual neurons nor whole sections of the brain have the properties of a completely integrated brain.
Emergence is the process behind our quantum leaps to sudden insight, sudden knowledge, sudden creativity, creative inspirations, flashes of genius, “Aha!” and “Eureka!” events, intuitive leaps, epiphanies, enlightenment, frontiering, growth, and jumps to whole-brain operation and flow states. Emergence is also the same process behind the synergy of co-maximizing systems. Synergy is the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce a combined effect greater and often different than the sum of their separate effects. As such it is a nonlinear process.
Each of us is a living system. Living systems and forces of nature are nonlinear. Their outcomes cannot be quantified by additive equations. Therefore, cause and effect will not necessarily be functionally related. In linear systems, output is proportional to input. In nonlinear systems, this is not the case. A small input may produce an enormous change in output.
The butterfly effect, popularized by the 2004science-fiction thriller, is a well-known hypothetical example of chaos theory which illustrates how small initial differences may lead to large unforeseen consequences over time. In linear systems change may be predicted by what has happened in the past. In nonlinear systems, change is discontinuous. Progress occurs with sudden unpredictable jumps. Sudden transitions may result from dramatic reorganizations (McClure, 1998*). Our “Aha!” and “Eureka!” events and other results of breakthrough synthesis involve emergence, nonlinear transactions, chaos theory, complexity theory, and sudden self-ordering systems.
A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that, as a whole, exhibit properties or behaviors not obvious from the properties of the component parts. This repeats the definition of emergence and the example of the brain. This is also the breakthrough synthesis’ information creation process or creativity that drives the continuous re-maximization dance. It is this same process that we will be using to drive your career to its maximum.
Please note that I use the term ‘quantum leap’ conceptually to help you to internalize the required change process. A quantum leap actually uses the process of emergence. However, the term ‘emergence’ suggests a linear process for what is actually nonlinear. Emergence therefore does not help me to ready your system for a leap to change. So I will call these sought-after career and work breakthrough states ‘quantum leaps’.
Do you notice how all of these terms reiterate or add dimensions to the basic breakthrough synthesis that generates the creativity to solve maximization challenges? Imagine harnessing the essential creative force of adaptation and evolution of all living systems to advance your career. Could it be that our seven breakthrough synthesizers who founded Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook merely tapped into the creativity of the universe and the way human beings have evolved to operate? Is that the true common thread that they share?
*McClure, B. A. (1998). Putting a New Spin on Groups: The Science of Chaos. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Exploit maximization-linked coincidences
Coincidences are yet another of the sudden leaps to new knowledge being promoted. They too are products of breakthrough synthesis. A single coincidence has been responsible for some of the most spectacular careers. However, a coincidence is also the information fuel for breakthrough synthesis. Three to seven coincidences or information systems are usually enough for the re-mix to create a significant new information system: an “Aha!” or “Eureka!” event, for example.
Coincidences are both the fuel and the product of breakthrough synthesis. Fortunately, integrating into the maximizing machinery will exponentially explode your experience of coincidences. How delightful! These coincidences, of course, will fuel a plethora of career-making breakthrough syntheses. Your career maximum will increase commensurately. How to cultivate these catalytic coincidences is an article in itself. However, here is a brief introduction.
Officially, a coincidence is the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. However, the coincidences that you will be experiencing with this proposed new career maximizing methodology will be causally linked to the maximizing process for your system. These are maximization-linked coincidences. Because they will seem serendipitous, the term ‘coincidence’ still works for our purposes.
However, they are actually co-maximizations or synergies among fellow maximizers. Living systems grab information from each other to fuel breakthrough synthesis to generate creative solutions to maximizing or adaptation challenges. The new information systems created by the re-mix appear as the coincidences in your life. However, these created coincidences are also the fuel for the next round of breakthrough syntheses or maximizing. In effect, breakthrough synthesis is the maximizing process. It both creates coincidences or information systems and uses them.
Accordingly, a cluster of coincidences will always indicate the flow of the maximizing process in your reality. The closer you are to your maximized state, the more compliant you will be to being orchestrated by the maximizing machinery to the right information at the right time for breakthroughs. The self-ordering nature of the machinery will then group you with the systems best able to provide you with the information you need next. This will increase the volume and quality of the information coincidences that you will experience. Your breakthroughs will increase commensurately.
You may recall from Part One that your maximized state is top-talent flow or a flow state that derives from applying your strongest, most preferred, talents to the field or application that is most meaningful to you. If the coincidences in your life are sparse or nonexistent, then you likely have moved out of the flow of the maximizing process. You are not maximized. You are sitting idly on the riverbank with the other unmaximized living systems. You will have no information fuel for the quantum leaps to career-making breakthroughs, insights, and flashes of genius.
These coincidences are not psychological or RAS events
These maximization-linked coincidences are not simply psychologically meaningful events as Jung proposed in his definition of ‘synchronicities’. These are not simply psychological transactions whereby you confer meaning on unrelated events. These are true physical events which result from the shared information pieces from your co-maximizing partners. These ‘coincidences’ are physical symptoms of the underlying dynamic order of a singular process which might be called ‘maximizing’ or ‘adaptation’ or ‘growth’ or ‘creativity’ or ‘creation’ or ‘emergence’ or ‘self-ordering’ or ‘problem-solving’ or ‘breakthrough synthesis’.
Nor are these coincidences or information quantum leaps or co-maximizations the result of your reticular activating system (RAS) seeing whatever you have been focused on. Your RAS is your information filter or gatekeeper. It is the reason why, when you buy the car you have been researching, you will see that model everywhere. It has evolved to filter thousands of items per second to select the information that you need for survival. Your RAS may help you to identify the best coincidences for your next breakthrough synthesis. However, it obviously does not create those coincidences. It is filtering true physical events.
Return to THE NEW CAREER MAXIMUMS – Part Two
