Consonance

In music, consonance refers to a set of notes that are considered stable enough to be played simultaneously in a chord. Dissonance is when notes are unstable together and don't sound quite as pleasant. Strumming a guitar or playing piano keys shows us that some note combinations just "work" while others seem to sound all wrong together. For example, the notes C and G are in the same key (C major)...meaning they sound "good" together. Here are their frequencies, numerically and visually:

C – 261.6 Hz
G – 392.0 Hz

Look closely at this graph. I have put red lines in this picture, to show the repeating pattern. Is the presence of this pattern the reason why C and G sound "good" to us? Secondly, the ratio of G to C is 3/2 (261.6 Hz / 392Hz). This means that every 3rd wave of G matches up with every 2nd wave of C. This phenomenon is commonly addressed in music theory and is explored is much more detail here.

While we could delve into the musical and mathematical explanations of this, I am much more interested in consonance as a phenomenon in nature. Where else might we observe it? If in music, one of the characteristics that allows notes to sound "right" together is a repeating pattern, would it be stretch to say that repeating patterns are naturally attractive to humans in completely different contexts? To push the idea further, would it be a stretch to say that the ability to recognize and understand patterns is a fundamental characteristic of human intelligence? The Mensa workout quiz tests for this, for example.

If musical consonance is any indication of the importance of patterns, it may be useful to find examples of consonance in different aspects of our world. In order to find these examples however, we would no longer be able to focus on discrete events, but would instead have to observe the connections between disparate pieces of information to identify unexpected relationships. Like music, such systems would no longer be viewed as linear, cause and effect events but rather systemic associations - just like systemic associations between repeating patterns in musical notes, and their resulting effect on pleasant sounds.

As a businessman committed to sustainable enterprise, I have to wonder if it is possible to manage an organization by using systemic interrelationships as its guiding principles. Would it be better to view a problem or inefficiency in a business as systemic issue that can be solved more effectively by identifying its patterns and influencing its related components? Many business managers today are comparatively reactionary; focusing on problems as discrete issues with "band-aid" fixes. Rather than use such an approach, business leaders would strive for "harmony" across departments in their company; the same way that musicians strive for harmony across notes and chord progressions. Modern ecologists have to apply a similar principle in their jobs. To balance natural ecosystems, they must view them as dynamic, interrelated communities of different species. In the horrible catastrophe that took place in the Gulf of Mexico recently, top leaders in marine ecology have accounted not only for immediate impacts on the ocean's health, but have also accounted for patterns from previous natural disasters in a unique bio-remediation-based approach to this one. This is yet another example of how identifying systemic interrelationships can help us solve problems more effectively.

I hope that none of this sounds too far-fetched. As we speak, the worlds largest companies are mobilizing themselves to utilize more computing power. They will be using this computing power to analyze vast data sets to identify patterns and systemic associations across systems. Can we learn something by observing patterns in one system, that we can apply to the business world or to sustainable enterprise? I believe we can.