Transcript LEADING AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS

LEADING AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS
Dr Peter Saul
Director, Strategic Consulting Group
Senior HR Forum
AHRI National Convention, May 1999
Adelaide
“EVERY ACT OF CREATION IS FIRST AN ACT OF DESTRUCTION”
"In order to arrive at what you do not know, you
must go by way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess,
you must go by way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not, you must
go through the way in which you are not".
T.S. Eliot
PERILS OF THE NEWTONIAN MINDSET
“If organizations are machines, control makes sense. If
organizations are process structures, then seeking to impose
control through permanent structure is suicide. If we believe that
acting responsibly means exerting control by having our hands
into everything, then we cannot hope for anything except what we
already have - a treadmill of effort and life-destroying stress.
What if we could reframe the search? What if we stopped looking
for control and began, in earnest, the search for order?”
“There is so much order that our attempts to separate out discrete
moments create the appearance of disorder.”
(Margaret Wheatley Leadership and the New Science 1994, p.23, p.21)
A QUANTUM UNIVERSE
“...nothing exists independent of its relationship with
something else...”
“…we inhabit a quantum universe that knows nothing of
itself independent of its relationships”.
“The challenge for us is to see beyond the innumerable
fragments to the whole, stepping back far enough to
appreciate how things move and change as a coherent
entity”.
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p.34, 39, 41)
RELATIONSHIPS MAKE REALITY HAPPEN
“A quantum universe is enacted only in an environment rich
in relationships. Nothing happens in the quantum world
without something encountering something else. Nothing
is independent of the relationships that occur. I am
constantly creating the world - evoking it, not discovering it
- as I participate in all its many interactions. This is a world
of process, not a world of things.”
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p.68)
CO-CREATING OUR REALITY
“The tourists come here with the camera
taking pictures all over. What has he got?
Another photo to take home, keep part of
Uluru. He should get another lens - see
straight inside then. Wouldn’t see big rock
then. He would see that Kuniya (python)
living right inside there as from the
beginning. He might throw his camera away
then”.
Tjamiwa, an Anangu elder
quoted in “The Australian Way” October 1995, p. 22
HEISENBERG’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE AT WORK
As soon as I measure your performance, I close
off insight into all the other possibilities of you
and your contribution to the organisation that
could have been observed (by others, or by me
using a different lens).
No wonder we become defensive about being
“shrunk” in this way by a process that reveals as
much about the observer and the measurement
approach as it does about “me” and “my
performance”.
ORGANISATIONS IN A QUANTUM WORLD
“The environment that the organization worries about is put
there by the organization”. Hence, the most useful
questions to ask ourselves as we interact with the
environment are:
 What happened?
 What actions might have served us better?
 What lenses might have served us better?
(Adapted from Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science, 1994,
p. 37)
MORE OBSERVERS = WISER ORGANISATION
“It would seem that the more participants we engage in this
participative universe, the more we can access its potentials and
the wiser we can become. ‘Whatever we call reality…it is revealed
to us only through an active construction in which we
participate’”.
“An organization swimming in many interpretations [of all the
information available] can then discuss, combine, and build on
them. The outcome of such a process has to be a much more
diverse and richer sense of what is going on and what needs to be
done”.
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p. 65)
…AND GREATER COMMITMENT
“In quantum logic, it is impossible to expect any plan or idea to be
real to employees if they do not have the opportunity to personally
interact with it. Reality emerges from our process of observation,
from decisions we the observers make about what we will see. It
does not exist independent of those activities.
Therefore, we cannot talk people into reality because there truly is
no reality to describe if they haven’t been there. People can only
become aware of the reality of the plan by interacting with it, by
creating different possibilities through their personal process of
observation.”
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p. 67)
PLANNING IN A QUANTUM WORLD
“Acting should precede planning…because it is only through
action and implementation that we create the environment. Until
we put the environment in place, how can we formulate our
thoughts and plans?
In strategic planning, we act as though we are responding to a
demand from the environment; but, in fact,... we create the
environment through our own strong intentions.
Strategies should be ‘just-in-time…,supported by more investment
in general knowledge, a large skill repertory, the ability to do a
quick study, trust in intuitions, and sophistication in cutting
losses’. In other words, we should concentrate on creating
…resources that expand in potential until needed”.
(Margaret Wheatley quoting Karl Weick in Leadership and the
New Science, 1994, p. 37)
UNIVERSE AS HOLOGRAM
“Acting locally allows us to work with the movement and
flow of simultaneous events within that small system. We
are more likely to become synchronised with that system
and thus to have an impact. These changes in small places,
however, create large system change, not because they
build one upon the other, but because they share in the
unbroken wholeness that has united them all along.”
However, the nature and timing of these quantum shifts are
unpredictable, creating a difficulty for managers held
accountable for meeting short-term time deadlines.
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p. 42)
FIELDS INFLUENCE ACTION AT A DISTANCE
In Newtonian physics, A had to directly influence B to cause
an effect. In the quantum world, energy interacting with a
field can cause an effect, even at great distance.
“We need all of us out there, stating, clarifying, discussing
modelling, filling all of space with the messages we care
about. If we do that, fields develop - and with them, their
wondrous capacity to bring energy into form…
If we have not bothered to create a field of vision that is
coherent and sincere, people will encounter other fields, the
ones we have created unintentionally or casually. It is
important to remember that space is never empty”.
(Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science 1994, p. 56)
CHAOS IS HEALTH
“All living systems, including organizations are chaotic. Chaos is creativity in
process; the place between the breakdown of the old and the formation of the
new. Living systems interact internally and with their environment;
connections are made; relationships are formed; information is created; and
‘choices’ are made. This interaction is messy, constant and wasteful.
Chaos is not the random, lawless, and meaningless behaviour it appears to
be. Instead, chaos is stable globally and unpredictable locally...
…Too much order and change will not cross impermeable boundaries. Too
much chaos and the system loses its organization.
Along this continuum of chaotic behaviour is a place called the ‘edge of
chaos’; a location of maximized activity, balanced order and chaos, and
enhanced creativity where new patterns, processes, and structures emerge
from self-organization.”
“Chaos” An email ‘pamphlet’ by Tom Heuerman with Diane Olson, 1998
MANAGING CHAOS
“In Chaos you cannot do,
you cannot plan,
you cannot reason to an end point.
In Chaos, you can only be.
“The 500-Year Delta” by Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker 1997, p.16
ACTING WITH INTEGRITY
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others,
it's the only thing".
Albert Schweitzer
"We must become the change we seek in the world".
Mahatma Gandhi
THE ORGANISATION AS COMPLEX LIVING SYSTEM
 CAUSE-EFFECT LINKAGES ARE OFTEN UNKNOWABLE
 The value of formal planning of actions is diminished
 Planning for identity or being increases in importance
 CORPORATE “INTELLIGENCE” AND ADAPTIVENESS IS
INCREASED BY INCREASING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN
PEOPLE AND FOSTERING INFORMATION FLOWS
 “LEADERSHIP” IS DISPERSED AND CHANGES WITH CONTEXT
 Hierarchy becomes ineffective and breaks down
 CREATIVITY AND ADAPTIVENESS ARE GREATEST ON THE
“EDGE OF CHAOS”
DEALING WITH COMPLEX SYSTEM PROBLEMS
 ENGAGE THE WHOLE SYSTEM
only participation saves us
 KEEP EXPANDING THE CIRCLE
Ask: “Who else should be involved?”
 CREATE ABUNDANT INFORMATION
and circulate it through existing and new channels
 DEVELOP QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS
trust is the greatest asset.
 SUPPORT ONLY COLLABORATION
competition destroys capacity
 FORGET BOUNDARIES AND TERRITORIES
push for openness everywhere
 FOCUS ON CREATING NEW, SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS
there is no going back
Source: “Turning to One Another: The Possibilities of Y2K”
by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers
QUANTUM LEADER AS STORY TELLER
"Leaders achieve their effectiveness chiefly through the
stories they relate....In addition to communicating stories,
leaders embody those stories...[Great leaders] told
stories...about themselves and their groups, about where
they were coming from and where they were headed,
about what was to be feared, struggled against, and
dreamed about"....
"Leaders and audiences traffic in many stories, but the
most basic story has to do with issues of identity".
Howard Gardner, "Leading Minds", 1995
THE POWER OF STORY
"We all fell in love with the story. Our faith in
the strength of the story carried us through".
Chris Noonan, Film-maker
Talking on 2BL on 14 February 1996 on the making of the
award winning Australian film "Babe"
BILLION DOLLAR STORIES
"Three senior executives gone, $2bn wiped off
[BHP's] share price in two days”
The Weekend Australian 5-10 August 1998, p. 57
"Prescott's $2.4bn resignation".
"BHP's market value surged $2.4 billion
yesterday after chief executive John Prescott
resigned with a payout package estimated at $20
million".
The Australian 5 March 1998, p.1
QUANTUM LEADER AS ECOLOGIST
ESTABLISHING A CLEAR IDENTITY
 Clarifying shared vision and values through extensive dialogue
 Nurturing and embodying a culture that enables self-directed action
 Aligning purpose, strategy and systems
DISTURBING THE SYSTEM
- because living systems are most creative on "the edge of chaos"
 Creating audacious, inspiring, and unifying goals
 Ensuring the rich flow of information and feedback
 Promoting diversity and cross-fertilisation of opinion
 Allow anxiety, confusion about change to work its creative magic
FOSTERING SELF-ORGANISATION
 Promoting ownership, commitment and self-reliance
 Nurturing a rich web of relationships
 Encouraging learning; trust; risk-taking; sharing ideas
 Nourishing the human spirit; engaging people's passion
Adapted from Mark Youngblood, "Life at the Edge of Chaos:
Creating the Quantum Organization" 1997
FLASHBACK:
LEADER AS CONTROLLER OF ECONOMIC MACHINE
DESIGNING AND BUILDING THE ORGANISATION
 Specifying job descriptions and authority levels
 Establishing formal channels of communication
 Assemble the required people and technology
PLANNING THE WORK
 Strategic planning and objective setting
 Allocation of physical and financial resources
 Setting measurable job goals
CONTROLLING THE WORK
 Close monitoring of activity and results
 Making corrections to system operation
MANAGING “FIT” WITH EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
 Monitoring the external environment
 Deciding what, when and how to change
 Providing competitive $ returns to shareholders