emergence

I visited Chapters yesterday because I wanted to look at three books: Chaos (Gleick), The Hidden Connections (Capra) and The World is Flat (Friedmann). Of these the first two got my attention as I paged through.

Capra, it turns out, is Fritjof Capra of the astonishing work of some years ago titled "The Turning Point." A physicist by trade, but now also into biology and organizational science, his chapter on "Life and Leadership in Organizations" in this book is excellent. He acknowledges a heavy debt to Margaret Wheatley.

In the chapter named I found a number of gripping thoughts. Here are two of them:

"The phenomenon of emergence takes place at critical points of instability that arise from fluctuations in the environment, amplified in feedback loops." p. 117

That quote brought to mind the ascending circles (left to right) in the diagram penned by Brother Maynard some months back. The loops in Maynard's diagram represented the life of a movement over time, from birth to death, but with something of the original dynamic preserved in the life of a new movement (the next loop) as the old became mired in management and programming. But it struck me that another truth was represented there and as innovative leaders spin onward and outward from one movement to another, (innovators are not threatened by chaos and change, not mired in tradition, and tend to maintain supportive networks with other innovators), they carry the DNA that nurtures new movements.

Capra notes there are two dynamics in living organisms: design and emergence. He draws a parallel to leadership systems: one set of skills anchors leaders who are good at design, another set anchors leaders who are good at facilitating networks and environments (the foundation of emergence). The health and flexibility of any organization will be measured by the degree that these two dynamisms interact. Along the way comes another statement:

"Facilitating emergence means first building up and nurturing networks of communication in order to “connect the system to more of itself” p.122

And this statement connects back to the letter of Mark Stephenson and to his concerns. Mark complained that it seems like a lot of energy is going into conversation, that we hear the same things again and again..

But in all this talk we are building relationship, unleashing creativity, and establishing support for one another as we become bolder to dream our dreams.

"If we dream alone, it remains merely a dream. If many dream together, then it is the beginning of a new reality..." Elisabeth Fiorenza

There is plenty more grist for discussion here.. the acknowledged tension between form and freedom (structure and spontaneity), as well as the need for a transition in leadership paradigms. Some links:

Creativity and Leadership in Learning Communities (Capra) PDF