Governing the paradox
"Reality is what we didn't expect." Henri Maldiney. This proposition structures our approach. MyceliumLab co-constructs with decision-makers — whether they are leaders, educators, parents, coaches, or administrators — new instruments to operate in a regime of uncertainty and post-truth. No more problem-solving : we qualify the nature and order of things to enable governance of paradoxical tensions.
Schedule a conversationMyceliumLab
The mycelium is the invisible architecture that enables forest vitality. A living and evolving network, it connects organisms, facilitates nutrient circulation, accelerates or slows its flows as needed, and supports the emergence of collective forms impossible to achieve through simple addition of individuals.
MyceliumLab is a methodological innovation laboratory : we create the organic collaboration mechanisms that the contemporary world demands. Here, experimentation is not a luxury—it's the method. Test, fail, adjust, succeed. The laboratory is a judgment-free space where error feeds learning and agility becomes natural.
Context
Problem-solving has long been the heart of organizational governance. In a relatively stable world, it worked : identify a problem, analyze its causes, deploy a solution. But that world no longer exists. Acceleration and post-truth have transformed the very nature of the challenges faced by decision-makers — whether they are leaders, educators, parents, coaches, or administrators. Problems had solutions. Paradoxes, however, are navigated.
Implications
Today, organizations face realities that cannot be resolved : innovate while preserving stability, act quickly while thinking, open up while protecting themselves. These tensions are not dysfunctions—they are structural. Tensions do not disappear; they are governed. One does not resolve a paradox; one composes with it. Wanting to eliminate it means missing its nature.
Hypothesis
Managing paradox requires a change in posture. It is no longer about seeking the perfect solution, but mastering the art of dynamic balance. Paradoxes are navigated : they require navigating between opposing poles, calibrating, constantly adjusting. It is this passage— from resolution to composition, from problem to paradox —that MyceliumLab accompanies.
Concept
The organizational polyrhythm refers to the coexistence of structurally incompatible temporalities within the same organization: the time of the living (biological cycles, seasonal rhythms), human time (deliberation, learning, meaning-making) and algorithmic time (instantaneous calculation, continuous optimization). These rhythms cannot be unified without organizational violence. Governing the paradox means precisely composing with this polyrhythm : create spaces where each temporality finds its place, where the tension between speeds becomes productive. MyceliumLab accompanies organizations in establishing these temporal zones — mechanisms where rhythms coexist without canceling each other out.
Reengineering
The traditional organizational chart structures the organization by functions and hierarchies. The geography of speeds reconfigures it around differentiated relationships to time. The organization ceases to be a pyramid of positions : it becomes a network of temporal zones. Some zones operate at the rhythm of the living—slow, cyclical, seasonal. Others at human rhythm—deliberative, reflective, dialogical. Still others at algorithmic rhythm—instantaneous, continuous, optimized. Employees circulate between these zones according to the nature of their activity and access protocols. It is no longer the position in the organizational chart that defines work — it is the relationship to time.
Methodology
Organizations can no longer govern themselves with only the tools of technical rationality. MyceliumLab brings arts and sciences into dialogue. We mobilize four disciplines : Design Thinking, Visual Anthropology, Gaming, and Philosophy. This dynamic of interaction between disciplines allows us to invent unprecedented tools.
Deliverables
A constellation of services in perpetual motion
About
MyceliumLab is the living organism that Nicolas Merveille founded to govern paradoxes. Like the mycelial network that constantly reconfigures itself, the team composes and recomposes itself over missions, mandates and projects. Expertises gravitate, connect, collaborate : design, philosophy, gaming, visual anthropology. No form is definitive. Everything is temporary configuration adapted to the challenge of the moment.
MyceliumLab thrives on unexpected connections. Whether you seek to join the organism, explore our services, forge connections, or guide institutions toward our approach, contact Nicolas Merveille. Each exchange is an opportunity for reconfiguration.
Location
Montreal, Quebec