U01a1 Future of Organizing
BUS4012
July 13, 2013 What are some main points and theories discussed in the Margaret Wheatley interview? 1. Order Can Emerge Out Of Chaos 2. Information informs us and forms us 3. Relationships are all there is 4. Vision is an invisible field 5. In order to survive in a world of change and chaos, we will need to: A. Accept chaos as an essential process by which natural systems, including organizations, renew and revitalize them B. Share information as the primary organizing force in any organization C. Develop the rich diversity of relationships that are all around us to energize our teams D. Embrace vision as an invisible field that can enable us to recreate our workplaces and our world.
To Wheatley, the clockwork universe presented by Newtonian physics is an adequate model in a static world that thrives on predictability. The hierarchical structures of modern organizations and contemporary models of leadership tend to reflect a mechanical Newtonian perspective. He argues that the turbulence of global society and culture is forcing organizations to realize that the models and habits developed for a stable environment may not work in a dynamic world. Imposing static and mechanical processes on an organization in a turbulent environment can submerge the organization until it implodes under pressure. A key challenge of applying the new sciences to leadership is that the relationships, forces, and waves that influence patterns of behavior are invisible; researchers can neither directly observe nor measure the dynamic and intangible phenomena. Lack of measurement means that the assumptions of the new sciences are not only difficult for typical researchers to understand, they are also difficult to validate.
This does not mean that insights offered by the new science are without merit; it likely means that contemporary