In addition to the metaphor of a machine or a military
organization
The predominant metaphor used in organizations today
is that of a machine. Almost equally popular is the
metaphor of a military operation. If an organization is a machine, then we simply must specify the parts
well
and make sure that each part does its part. If an organization is a military operation, then command,
control
and communication needs to be hierarchical; survival is key; and sacrificial heroes are desired (although
no
one really wants to be one themselves). Most of today’s organizational artifacts – job descriptions,
rank-
and-file employees, turf battles, strategic plans and so on – emerge from these largely unexpressed
and
undiscussed metaphors. If you buy into these metaphors, then the traditional actions of management make
sense and should work.
The basic problem with these metaphors when applied to
a complex adaptive system is that they ignore the
individuality of agents and the effects of interaction among agents. Or worse, they simply assume that
all
this can be tightly controlled through better (read: more) specification. While there are many situations
for
which the machine and military metaphors might be useful – for example, routine surgical processes – there
are also many situations for which these metaphors are grossly inadequate. When we view our system
through the lens of complexity, we take on a new metaphor – that of a CAS – and, therefore,
are using a
different model to determine what makes sense for leaders to do.
Viewing the world through the complexity lens has been
a marvelously stress-reducing experience for the
health care leaders in VHA. Many have come to see that the massive sea of changes that they have
experienced and agonized over recently – the failed Clinton health care reform plan, the rise
of managed
care, the AIDS epidemic – are natural phenomena in a complex adaptive system. Such things will
happen
again, each will leave its mark on the health care system. Predicting when and where the next one will
come
is futile. Learning to be flexible and adaptable is the only sustainable leadership strategy.
"All theories of organization and management
are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to
see, understand and manage organizations in distinctive yet partial ways … the use of metaphor
implies
a way of thinking and a way of seeing that pervade how we understand our world … One of the most
basic problems of modern management is that the mechanical way of thinking is so ingrained in our
everyday conceptions of organization, that it is often very difficult to organize in any other way."
–Morgan
"To see life as a whole - to observe what all
life has in common - requires a shift in the way we normally
look at things. We must look beyond the individual insect or tree or flower and seek a more panoramic
perspective. We need to think as much about process as we do about structure. From this expanded
viewpoint, we can see life in terms of patterns and rules. Using these rules, life builds, organizes,
recycles
and recreates itself."
-Hoagland
1. Thoughts
