 Understanding the concept of a synergy is central to understanding the process of emergence. This is because emergence involves the creation of some new macro level phenomena that is not a product of the properties of its parts. This new phenomena is instead a product of the synergies between the parts. When people are introduced to the idea of emergence without understanding synergies then everything starts to look a bit mysterious like we're somehow getting something for nothing. But this is certainly not the case. This conclusion is simply a product of how we're looking at the situation. The standard paradigm in science is based upon linear systems theory. We assume that things are linear systems. Linear systems are nothing more than the sum of their parts. The relations between the parts do not add or subtract value to the whole system. Thus emergence is theoretically impossible within a linear system. If we start with the assumption that everything is a linear system then emergence will start to look like some form of divine intervention. But this conclusion is arrived at because of the flaws in our assumptions. Not all systems are linear. All systems that exhibit emergence are in some way non-linear which means that the relationship between the parts adds or subtracts value to the whole organization. And this is what creates the distinction between the micro and macro level patterns. These specific nonlinear relationships between the parts are called synergies. This is why we say that emergence is a process of non-linear pattern formation. It can only happen when there are these nonlinear relations between the parts called synergies. In order to understand how this happens we need to know a bit about the workings to synergies and that's what we'll be covering in this module. A synergy is an interaction or coordination between two or more elements or organizations to produce a combined effect greater or less than the sum of their separate effects. A synergy is a particular type of interaction between parts. It is a nonlinear interaction where the specific way the parts interact creates an effect that is greater or less than the simple sum of their effects in isolation. Synergistic interactions are pervasive in our world. Examples of synergies include ants working together in a colony to achieve results far greater than the sum of their activities in isolation or two drugs having a combined effect that is greater than each taken in isolation or two companies merging to create a more efficient combined enterprise through the combination of their capabilities and resources. These synergies can be understood with reference to linear and nonlinear relations. A nonlinear relation can be understood as one that in some way adds or subtracts value above that of the components due to the specific way that they are combined or arranged. Linear relations are those that simply combine or recombine the parts without the interaction between them changing the overall system. For example a zero sum game involves linear interactions where the parts exchange resources but the overall amount does not change. We're simply moving things around. Thus linear interactions do not add or subtract value above that pertaining to the elements within the system. We simply move things around, divide them up or rearrange them but the combined organization stays invariant. In contrast a nonlinear interaction is one that adds or subtracts value from the whole system. A nonzero sum game would be an example of this due to the cooperation between actors the overall pie can get bigger thus adding value to the combined organization. Synergies define a nonlinear relationship between the parts of an organization. Unlike linear interactions that are context independent synergies are context dependent. The overall value is added out of the interaction between two or more specific parts. With synergies it is the interaction that adds or subtracts value and importantly that interaction is dependent upon the specific components that are combined within it. For example synergies will only occur within a business if the right people are connected in the right way and often in the right context. We cannot just connect any people in any fashion doing so would remove the synergies. Interdependence then is a fundamental part of synergies. The elements within a positive synergy are interdependent in that they have to each perform different functions or roles with respect to each other. For example a football team works synergistically due to the various roles that the members occupy within the whole organization. Moreover not only do they have different roles within the team they are also adapted to and interdependent with the specific characteristics of the other members of their team. If we suddenly switch the quarterback from one team and put them in another we would likely find the overall performance reduced substantially. In this way synergies are always contingent upon the particular context within which the components have developed interdependencies with other elements in the system. This is in contrast to linear relations that do not engender interdependencies. For example in building a brick wall we could just swap out one of the bricks and replace it with another of the same specification. We'll simply move the block from one place in the wall to another this would not affect the overall system and this is an important feature to linear systems that makes them particularly amenable to our standard mathematical framework. This interdependence between the parts within a synergy is a function of the degree to which they are both integrated and differentiated. Differentiation means that the parts are performing different functions or occupying different states with respect to each other. All the players on a football team do different activities. All the bees in a colony perform different functions. The cells, tissues and organs of the human body perform different functional roles. This differentiation means that the parts can focus specifically on a limited number of functions and thus perform them more effectively as they become more specialized. But differentiation is of no use if those different parts cannot then be reintegrated towards performing a collective function. All of the members of a football team or the members of a business need to be coordinated into the common process required to achieve the overall objectives of that organization. Thus integration is just as important as differentiation in that it ensures all the different parts are working together. For example it is only by having the integration mechanism of the market exchange that we can all have different specialized occupations. Without this macro system for integrating all of our different skills we would not be able to specialize. In every synergy and relation of interdependence there is this dynamic of a differentiation between the parts that is to say they must be doing different things or in some way have a different form and structure. But equally there is integration so that they create some combined organization. The degree of effectiveness of the organization will be largely defined by the extent to which this is achieved and how balanced the dynamic between the two is. Synergies can be described as being positive or negative where a positive synergy describes a nonlinear interaction that adds value to the whole organization. A negative synergy is a nonlinear interaction that subtracts value from the whole organization. A positive synergy describes how the combined organization is more than the sum of its parts due to the parts working together constructively. Indeed the term synergy can be defined as a measure of the effectiveness to the joint efforts of various subsystems acting in coordination. Positive synergies are a product of elements effectively achieving both differentiation and integration. For example in the process of brainstorming to come up with new ideas the process will be most successful if given a wide diversity of ideas and the capacity to synthesize those different ideas into a finished outcome. To be successful the team will have to come up with both different ideas and be able to coordinate in synthesizing those ideas into a final solution. The degree of positive synergy in a group can be understood as a function of the level of both differentiation and integration added to how balanced these two are. The more specialized the parts the greater their integration and the greater the balance between those the more functional the overall system will be. The human body can perform the many functions that it can because of both the extremely high level of differentiation between its parts creating interdependency and its capacity to integrate those functions. Simpler organisms lack this high degree of differentiation and integration and thus lack many of the functions of the human body. Likewise the same would apply to a multinational corporation to a production process a technology etc. A modern car delivers much greater functionality than one of 50 years ago but to do this a car today has about 30,000 parts which are all specifically designed to be well integrated into the whole. A computer can perform many more functions than a calculator because it has many more specialized subsystems that are effectively coordinated. Thus it is this combination of differentiation and integration that creates positive synergies and creates the functionality that adds value to the whole organization. This is the origin of emergence but what emerges is the product of many distributed synergies across the system. In contrast to a positive synergy a negative synergy is a non-linear interaction where the combined outcome is less than the sum of the parts effects taken in isolation. A good example of a negative synergy is competition such as an arms race between two nations. It is the specific way the two parties interact that we get the overall outcome that is counter productive and detrimental to all. Another example of a negative synergy would be two creatures fighting over the same territory. Negative synergies can be understood as the failure of the parts engendered in the relation to differentiate or integrate effectively. Either the parts become too different without integration meaning they're doing very different things and can find no way to interoperate or vice versa they become too integrated and similar. An example of the former might be a body of knowledge becoming too specialized without finding ways to interrelate the different domains the result being fragmentation and a reduction in the overall functionality of the system. The same can be true of a family as the members grow up and become focused on their particular lives without being able to find a common ground between them. The whole system of the family would then as a product disintegrate. Worse than fragmentation the parts can end up pulling in different counteractive directions such as in a meeting where the members have different ideas and agendas whilst needing also to find a common outcome thus leading to deadlock and potential conflict. Too much integration between the parts can likewise create negative synergies as all the parts come to occupy the same state with the result being that the full set of possibilities are not explored. A lack of specialization and diversity and that can be crowding out as all the parts try to occupy the same state or function. A good analogy of these negative synergies of both over integration and over differentiation would be the example of free market capitalism and communism free market capitalism over emphasizes competition resulting in a lack of integration ending up with millions of products on the market or competing as they assert their difference and merits while many of them are really the same resulting in an excess of economic activity going into differentiation and a loss of overall productivity. Likewise communism worked in the opposite direction with an overall emphasis on the commonality between people and their economic activities with the result being a lack of capacity to harness the individual's diverse motives.