Organize with Chaos? LinkedIn Question

Shuki Weiss wrote: Read the work of - Jeffrey Goldstein from Edelphy university USA. He talks about "Far from equilibrium groups" as a tactic to manage through Chaos. You will find it fascinating, and helping to promote change in a chaotic organization.

Change begins with acceptance

"Change only begins with acceptance. ... understanding and accepting chaos conceptually is an important first step towards modern management education. This ... offers a great opportunity for executives to interpret and to deal effectively, with what is happening in the global business world of today.

In recent decades, a business organisation could still afford to plan and to move slowly; to set modest incremental goals, and to centre itself around a tight, control-oriented bureaucracy. This system of organisation was... designed to fight chaos. It seeks efficiency not innovation and, because it requires a whole chain of “yes’s” before something new can happen, it can only change itself slowly. One “no” in the chain will shoot down any new project. Today’s environment no longer tolerates such organised sluggishness." (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.27)

Move 9 - final

9: "Just the Two of us", final: "Just me" (the support of my father, sometimes material, sometimes just by inner intent is there, BUT I have to do it . My father is not an expert in my field, so he can't 'pave the way' (even if he'd be willing to ... and has done so in the past).

Move 7 - 8

My father & me, and in 8: the two of us surrounded by the diplomas.

Move 6

I suddenly realized that I had forgotten the "PhD", which actually is an outcome of all the previous degrees & its epitome, so I placed it on top of the others.

Move 5

I place the diplomas behind me & think "now I have all the degrees to just wipe my father away", a powerful, yet arrogant feeling. I relax & realize "my dad actually financed all these degrees, also the ones that he was unhappy about. I choose - a grovelled verbally - I grovelled back - and, in the end he financed it". Mmmm... humorous on a certain level, & also a humble realization of the difference between 'fact' and 'emotion'. The 'fact' is that my dad paid a lot for all my intellectual explorations, and that today - 20 years later - I can understand his concern with 'results'. It also makes me question to interpretation of myself, "my story", of being "right" whereas he, or someone else, is "wrong".

Move 3 - 4

I turned myself around. Now the diplomas suddenly call up the image of my "father" & in Move 4 it's just he & I.

Move 1 - 2

In Move 1 I set up: "me now" in the middle, surrounded by my diplomas (Cornell, Sciences Po, ...). I experienced being surrounded by people who all "demand something from me", a rather unpleasant feeling. Intellectually I 'told' myself that these fantastic diplomas actually are a tremendous support to always have work/a job in this competitive world.

In Move 2 I place the diplomas together behind me. I felt the idea of having to call a former successful classmate/friend to apollogetically ask him for 'help' in a sort of "mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" way.

Touchstone Constellation "Which strength do I get from previous degrees?"

At the 'viva', the defence of my PhD, Marco Matera gave me a set of "Touchstones", which he uses to do constellation coachings with. In the following Posts I describe how I used them to clarify & answer a personal question myself. I also used another technique, Hajo Banzhaf's 7-spread of the Tarot. As a scientist I see Constellations, Tarot, and other tools of decision-making, only as "contextual languages" who can help us to reframe & to clarify our issues, often by touching a layer of information of which we were not aware. Scientists should not accept or reject these, but test them empirically or phenomenologically.

Move final

It seems that the 2 can face "the world": all sorts of elements & people.

During this constellation thoughts came up & it is very tempting to go into these & theorize. e.g. the Queen is my partner & together we are facing etc... I don't ignore these thoughts, but for now think it's better to just "absorb" the dynamic & these thoughts, and see what "emerges" later. In my experience filling in a non-verbal exercise like a Constellation too quickly, is not effective.

I'm curious to know what you have experienced.

Move 14 - 15

The 2 face each other. Then it seems more appropriate to stand next to each other.

Move 12 - 13

"I" goes till the end. Then waits. Then it seems appropriate to put a Queen at the other side of the table. Strong energy between the 2.

Move 9 - 10 - 11

Move 8

It seems only these 2 are necessary

Move 7

Black King & White Queen face each other. I think of a man/woman relationship.

Move 6

The Queen stands in front of the Rooks (Towers)

Move 5

I moved the 3 closer to "my talents & I". They still felt weak.

Move 4

Facing those 3 elements I pulled my talents closer to me. Somehow, the 3 opposite white elements felt weak to me.

Move 3

I placed 3 white pieces in front of "me & my talents". I don't know why I choose a Queen & 2 Rooks. It just seemed right.

Move 2

The black piece represents "me". The white pieces indicate talents that I have; two are smaller talents, one is a bigger one.

Systemic Constellation with Chess Pieces

Here are some pictures of the question "Which talents can I appeal to (including what I need to learn) to clearly realize a new project? for which I used the systemic constellations technique using chess pieces. I just present the photos without any explanation. At times it just felt as the right moving of objects. Maybe the reader feels this to. If so, let me know.

Success is built on how you handle failure

"Nature experiments by throwing a whole lot of diversity into a changing environment. Most of her experiments actually fail. Adaptive success and long-term stability in business today is likewise built on how you handle failure. It takes a whole string of small experimental risks, mistakes and failures … to ensure the (organization)’s adaptive stability." (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.26)

Management today must be considered as a continuous experiment

Rigid inflexibility and the inability to adapt and change along with the environment, condemns an organisation to ... disintegration and premature extinction. Paradoxically, if order and control is imposed on the system at the wrong time, the self-organising process of change will collapse and it will die. In practice this usually means protecting the young fresh upstarts ... The interference from former, or current, successful ways of doing things, must be ... fundamentally challenged, absorbed and changed. In the long term, the real danger of not continuously adapting to the shifts in the modern business climate, is that the whole organisation can and will become unstable and probably disappear. Management today must be considered as a continuous experiment. (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.26)

A journey into the unknown

" Chaos ... contains higher order potential. Like the ... Chinese symbol for crisis, it is pregnant with potential opportunity and also with potential disaster. Learning how to deal effectively with business chaos is ... an inevitable new management skill today. This is not suprising. When its life supporting environment changes suddenly, any purposeful organism, or business organisation, which depends on that environment, must be able to adapt.

When these environmental changes are fundamental, creative adaptation is required. This often means a journey into the unknown. If it is to survive, the organisation unit must leave its former state of ordered structure and efficient habits, pass through a turbulent unpredictable phase of creative experimental chaos ... " (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.25)

This Blog must become more self-organizing

We are looking for people who work with the principles of the book, and who occasionally want to write a blog entry. We'll make you a co-author.

On www.linkedin.com there's two Change groups, namely "Change: Organize with Chaos" & "Change: Systemic Constellations Work in Organizations". Please, join and share your knowledge.

Robin Rowley & Joseph Roevens

Predictability is impossible

"When you examine the behaviour of an open living system like a business organisation ... the dynamics get so complicated so quickly, that predictability is impossible. All possible scenarios will quickly diverge in time. The sensitivity of such a system to initial conditions, means that infinitesimally small events, particularly at the start of any intervention, really do matter." (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.25)

Uncertainty, Presence, in french, en français

11 years ago I read "Banco" by Henri Charrière, the real "Papillon" (remember the movie with Dustin Hoffman & ), a sentenced-to-life prisoner in the 1930s who was able to escape from French Guyana. I used a quote during a seminar on Managing Change & Chaos. Today I found it again on the Blog "les grandes gueules" and would like to share it with the French readers of this Blog. Enjoy!

"Dans l’avion qui me ramène à Caracas, je rigole en me disant que les hommes pensent qu’ils sont maîtres de leur destinée, qu’ils peuvent construire l’avenir, prévoir ce qu’ils feront un ou deux ans plus tard. Du vrai bidon Papi !… L’homme le plus précis, le plus calculateur, le plus génial organisateur de sa vie n’est qu’un jouet devant l’inconnu du destin. Seul le présent est sûr. Le reste c’est l’inconnu qui s’appelle chance, malchance, destin ou encore le mystérieux et incompréhensible doigt de Dieu. La seule chose qui compte dans la vie avant tout : ne jamais s’avouer vaincu et après chaque fracas recommencer !… C’est ce que je vais faire…"

Do you know of any organisation that does not know chaos?

"For now, just think deeply about your own business. Do you know of any company, or organisation that does not in fact know chaos? The practical challenge for any executive today is not so much to try to fight and eliminate Chaos, but to learn to understand and to use it strategically, as a vital creative resource." (Rowley & Roevens, 2007, p.24)