Building on my earlier
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Organic systems - if the evidence of the geological record is to be trusted
- spend long periods of time not evolving [or not evolving fast]
becausethe complex network of genes interacting in a system survive by
reasching aquasi-stability. So do organisational ones. They like to freeze
up around acertain pattern. They then stop learning. Actually even threads
on this list may display the same behaviour but I need to think about that
one.
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Valdis asks
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I guess the $64 question for us change agents is... how does an
organization move from its current state of quasi-stability to a new one
that is more appropriate for a changed environment?
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Leaving the distinction of adapting versus generating [changing the
environment first] aside - your various contributions Valdis leave me
feeling you have that distinction fairly clearly - I would offer that the
metaphor of stability, chaos [total communal garden chaos not 'modern'
chaos] and 'edge of chaos, spontaneous self-organisation etc offers a
powerful clue to the answer.
To get from stability towards adaptation/ generation requires a move
towards, if not into chaos [NORMING - STORMING - REFORMING is another way
of puuting it]. But chaos and uncertainty is a threat, both to individuals
and the patterns which they and their organisations carry around. In my
view of organisational evolution the threat is to the selfish pattern
[meme] at least as much as to the individual. It could be said to be the
point where the interest of the pattern [its replication] and the interest
of the host the pattern creates [minds and organisations] diverge.
For change agents then what are the options: I see two [but I am a lumper
not a splitter]
1. is almost manipulative - use any of the various tools we talk about at
length to induce a shift of pattern. There are many people out there who
do this and generate great results for their clients. Most do it with
integrity and more believe they do it with integrity. Often they meet what
is asked of them [GIVE ME THE PILL/ RECIPE SO THAT I MAY MOVE ON]
2. is to try and help the organisation generate its own shift of pattern,
which means helping people first see the power of patterns to keep an
organisation stuck whilst also helping them discover conversations for
different possibilities. It strikes me as a less manipulative approach
[but I am conscious of being open to being referred to as self-righteous].
My hope is that a wider appreciation of the simplicity of complex adaptive
systems may make it easier.
Interested to see where this, and the rest of this thread leads.
If Price
The Harrow Partnership
Pewley Fort Guildford UK
101701.3454@compuserve.com
P.S. For thread selectors Doug Seeley put it well in the next message
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It is the energy patterns and attitudes which get laid down in us during
those formative years which become our launching platform for our worldly
encounters.
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YES DOUG AND MORE
--Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>