Organizational Change – Of Ferns and Fractals

April 19, 2010 8750 Comments2010-04-19+05%3A05%3A22Ben+Nash

Last time you took a walk in nature did you ask yourself “who controls all this stuff?” I would venture to say that you did not. Most of us take a walk just to enjoy the fresh air—but not Margaret Wheatley.

Margaret looked at the natural world and asked herself: “how can there be so much order in a nature without anyone in control of it?”. For example how is there so much symmetry in a plant such as a fern?

This insightful question led her to write her seminal management book “Leadership and the New Science.” One of the main themes in the book is that order and control in organizations are opposite concepts. Wheatley points out the phenomenon of self-organization in nature, in which nature, left to its own devices, organizes itself into ever more complex and productive systems. According to Wheatley the same is true for our business organizations.

In mathematics this self organizing phenomenon is called “fractals”. A fractal is a simple geometric figure that repeats itself to make ever more complex patterns (think of ferns). According to Wheatley managers do not need to be obsessive about control. Instead they need to trust the fractal process and allow organizational systems to self regulate. Clearly many managers have a long way to go to accept this approach. A good start would be for them to read Margaret Wheatley’s excellent book “Leadership and the New Science.”