I love it!

but while much of our society tries to order itself to protect itself from the extremity of chaos, the fear of chaos produces fundamentalism and we have the extremity of communism and the uber order making of Nazi Germany as examples of order gone wrong ….( and in the end producing the disintegration it feared )

I wonder what it looks like to really acknowledge the line we all skate between chaos and order and find the beauty and the energy in that place!

I’ve been thinking about what you said about art being a good example of chaordic principle which led to another wicked idea … do you want to have some chaordic fun?

Jaqueline, yes, like you, I’m not a big proponent of discarding any organisational model outright and jumping onto the next bandwagon … simply because pendulum is swinging the other way. It seems there are valuable lessons to be learned by examining all extremes … what works, what doesn’t, why, in what historical and environmental context, etc, etc. Usually no single model ends up being ideal. I believe that successful organisations are those that are flexible, able to adapt, borrowing from a hybrid of multiple models, as well as a home-grown common sense approach

As I searched in vain on the internet last night for an updated description of what a chaordic organisation looks like, I was surprised to see there is little written about chaordic organisations after 2005, when the writing seemed to fizzle out. Which leads to the question …why? Yes, the concept is possibly intuitive and difficult to describe within our current western view without good examples, but one would think this alone would not be an insurmountable problem … I would have expected further examples of such organisational structures to be found and their effectiveness researched a bit more closely. This doesn’t seem to have been the case, though. Why? I don’t know for sure, but suspect that maybe it’s because the big shining example of a successful chaordic organisation, Visa International, is a sticky point at the moment … going hand in hand with lack of adequate controls over irresponsible money lending policy … and too much credit. So, do we throw the concept out completely without further ado, and keep looking for the next big thing? I’m not an economist … I’m a bit more comfortable with our banks being a little more staid, and soulless institutions because of the purpose that they are supposed to serve. Perhaps a mature organisational structure … an institutional structure … lends itself better to a banking world? But, even then a bit of heart and personal adaptation, friendliness, context still goes a long way, even in the banking world.

Artists are comfortable on the edge between chaos and order. We are not afraid of chaos, and we find in it the potential for new form – it is where new life comes from. I would have to say that may be true of creative people in any field.

I sometimes wonder if that is one reason why people are a bit nervous of artists- we look too comfortable with chaos. Many are afraid of it…but it is those in-between people, the ones who are OK on the edge who we need in order to bring forth form ..without them we just reject chaos, and without new life coming from it we risk the death of what is already established.

It seems to me that is like saying a seed is an ideal model for a tree.

There is a lot of concentrated energy in a seed and it has to have water and light poured on in abundance for it to take root an grow, hence the powerful stories and events of Acts…..but then to look at a tree struggle and imagine it needs what it did when it was a seedling is a bit too farsighted to adequately meet the needs of the present.

Eg If the tree needs pruning, we are going to miss that, as we don’t do that to seedlings. And if the tree needs to die to let new life spring forth we will miss that too.

I like the concept of a chaordic organisation, which operates on the edge of order and chaos … and quite far away from control. I can’t find any good write-up on it though to explain how it works … even my trusty wikipeadia has let me down … it’s an idea first espoused by Dee Hock who successfully innovated Visa but can apply to any kind of organisation. It’s rooted in an observation of how nature actually works … and ties in with the observations biologists and scientists are making … I realise that Visa is probably a dirty word now … the way the economy has been going … but the basic concept seems quite sound.

There aren’t a lot of examples out there … but if we think of the internet – world wide web – and how it’s organized … that gives a kind of a clue to how an organic organisational structure can operate … with separate autonomy but still as part of a wider network. A ‘governing’ body’s role is more advisory, to set standards and best practices, assist with setting up links, based on feedback and experience received from the outer nodes … ie. the organisations at the rock face.