Michael Richey

1. What are your main interests? Feel free to include a "pie in the sky" big idea!

My interest and research questions include: • Can one construct a general theory of social organizations that is quantitative and predictive? • Are there “universal” scaling laws that reveal underlying principles? • Are there average idealized social organizations? • Did they evolve under “natural selection” in a “free market” environment via competition? • What is the nature of their hierarchies and generic network structure? • Are there universality classes of networks? • Is there an optimal maximum (or minimum) size? • What drives mergers? Growth, mortality, aging, evolution, … • How robust is this heterogeneous social system? What is the capacity for dynamic adaptation? What policies and procedures enable adaptation, how do they propagate through the social network? • What is the effect of internal – external policy decisions, technology and global pressures change? How do these decisions support the goal oriented behaviors of social agents? (Contagion phenomena) • What computational models can we employ to better understand the Boeing Innovation culture, as a complex adaptive system? • What are the commonalities among adaptive agents (leadership, fellowship and extended workforce)? Can we distill these behaviors into prototypical adaptive behaviors; can we leverage this insight to shift lifelong learning strategies? Can we identify the level of sophistication and enabling conditions? • Social Niche Construction: the new business model fundamentally altered the internal agent behavior through exposure to global external agents and cultures. Can we model this new operational mode and understand how to leverage the combined intellectual capital generated from this diverse perspective? • Social worlds: This new model presents a opportunity to shape – influence global behaviors by shifting the balance of local and regional control. How is this accomplished by agents within this global environment? How does this decentralized – centralized balance occur, how does this impact agent behavior i.e., heuristic business modeling for the benefit of the collective system goals? • Social agents receive or acquire knowledge; the information is leveraged against a schema, processes and acted on. Within the social network, how do agents access information, what is the level of fidelity, how do they direct their acts toward optimizing the solution space? • How can companies evaluate the tangible and intangible returns from investments in innovation and global business and economic modeling, and to predict the likely returns from future investments within tolerable margins of error and with attention to the full spectrum of potential consequences • Complex Adaptive Societies (CAS) where diverse groups, individuals or businesses come together to gain new knowledge, understanding or skills through social interaction are increasingly being developed to address complex social or economical problems (McDonald 2005). • How do learning communities attempt to capitalize on the potential synergy between diverse groups of people to address multiple, diverse aims. A good example of this phenomenon is the learning cities initiative (West 2002, Yarnit 2000) which seeks to build city wide learning communities which both improve citizen learning and economic regeneration.

2. What sorts of expertise can you bring to the group? (or not)

• About me: I am an Associate Technical Fellow currently assigned to support Workforce development and Learning Science research within the Boeing Company’s Learning Training and Development group. I am responsible for establishing educational partnerships that integrate Cognitive Learning Sciences into advanced materials and product lifecycle management programs. This effort includes developing immersive and virtual teaming environments that enable flexible student centered learning opportunities. Key programs and customers include 767, 777, 787™ programs. • Major activities include strategic planning, customer rapport, work performance teaming, selection of staff and subcontractors, and for posturing the company for subsequent business programs. s responsibilities include providing business leadership for 787 engineering technical and professional educational programs. This includes topics in advanced materials i.e., composites and Product Lifecycle Management theories and practices. I am responsible for leading cross-organizational teams e.g., academic, government and industry, and approving products for technical feasibility and business project consistency. This includes learning science research, including the application of immersive and cognitive learning theories into academic and industrial settings. I also have limited experience with venture capital. Past projects included working with Boeing Ventures and IBM, I co-developed and coordinated a strategic business plan that detailed an engineering service company focused on integrating advanced Product Lifecycle Management software and 3-D Computer Aided Design - Computer Aided Manufacturing technology into large-scale system manufacturing and after market support operations. In this capacity, Michael worked with Boeing Ventures and The Madrona Venture Capital Group to conducted process validation and "Due Diligence” on next square business opportunities. I can offer my experience with strategy and business alignment, program – project management and corporate education and global strategies. (or not) My weakness is math, it has been many years since I graduated and my past and current education has been focused on corporate education and learning science research.

3. What do you hope to get out of the CSSS?

A broader understanding on complexity and complex adaptive systems, computational modeling, social emergence, as related to sustainability, innovation and scale, the life and flow of information through social networks, innovation disruptions through user generated content, societies as complex systems, leadership and ethics relation to complex systems, and singularities, what causes the collapse of complex societies.

4. Do you have any possible projects in mind for the CSSS?

Yes, SFI and Boeing have partnered on a research project that seeks to understand the contexts, structures and processes of social adaptive systems and innovation. We have funded research focused on understanding the global business model from a innovation and complex adaptive system perspective. The discovery phase (June 18th thru September 25th) will leverage the SFI Course graining approach to define the boundaries and primary research goals. Based on the knowledge gathered within this “Discovery” phase, create a better understanding of the social system and dynamic models and specific methods of enquiry. If there is student interest in exploring alignment of the SFI-Boeing research objectives to the CSSS projects, I would appreciate an opportunity to explore.