"Capitalism doesn't work"
"What I mean by this is that the current economic system prevailing in the
West over the last hundred years or so cannot provide the stability that
many of us seek in our lives and communities. Unfortunately no-one has
come up with a better system which has been successfully tested in the
real world, so we are left living and coping with instability.
"The question then arises that if this is true, does this mean that all
our work at a corporate level within the economic system is just dealing
with symptoms rather than changing anything which is going to decrease
instability.
"This may be all we can do - economics as chaos theory - but it can
explain why each new management approach runs up against the buffers and
is then discredited in popular business culture because each management
approach deals with symptoms, not the fundamental problem."
This makes me think of Margaret Wheatley's wonderful study of chaos theory
in "Leadership and the New Science." I specifically think of the value of
instability in bringing new information to open systems, as opposed to the
old emphasis on closed systems and stability, which results in an
exhaustive effort against entropy (the wearing down of the closed system).
I was also struck by her picture of systems without boundaries, or, more
precisely, with boundaries that set themselves through the iteration of
the system (whatever that means!).
I've always noticed that when I walk in the woods, I feel calm. I think
it is partly because there are no "articificial" boundaries and I feel
free to wander around creatively.
Finally, Wheatley says that local instability results in global stability,
as the system sorts itself out autonomously, based on the governing ideas
(called strange attractors in chaos theory) and the free flow of
information.
I look forward to organizations with self-organized boundaries, high
autonomy locally, and clearly articulated governing ideas. I think they
will get results they intend and achieve their purposes.
Hope this message isn't too long or rambling. I've been lurking for a
long time, so my speaking out needs practice!
[Host's Note: Welcome, Christopher! ... Rick]
Christopher Lee
chris1112k@aol.com
1112 Karmel Street
Boalsburg PA 16827-1651
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>