|
Chaordic Organisational Design
Paul Chippendale
Introduction
In a recent workshop I made the comment that the most
creative space for a team to work is near the edge of chaos. I also
commented that this creative space can only be sustained when team
members have a clearly defined and understood shared purpose based
on their shared values. In this eZine I overview an approach which
enables teams to operate in this highly creative space - order
within apparent chaos - the chaordic space.
A Chaordic Design Process
The Chaordic Design Process described here has been
adapted from the model used in the transformation of VISA from an
organisation of a few hundred members twenty years ago, to its
current form which is a highly decentralised, collaborative
organisation linking together 20,000 financial institutions, 14
million merchants, and 600 million consumers in 220 countries
(Clanon 1999, p. 150).
The Seven Components of the Chaordic
Design Process
-
Values & Beliefs. All people in the
organisation need to be consciously aware of their priority values
and why these values are important in their life. To facilitate
this process, each person takes an inventory of their values, via,
for example, the AVI (A Values Inventory). Use of an instrument
like the AVI, with its standardized values' definitions, enables
the building of a shared language of values within the
organisation. It is important to note that people have the values
they have and we can only work with them, i.e. go with the flow,
we cannot make people take on values that are of no importance to
them.
The objective of any approach to personal or
systemic change is to change peoples' values. It is known from
neuroscience and complexity theory, that world-views must be
altered in order to change people's values Thus the change
program has to somehow change people's world-views. To be
successful, the program is going to have to wrestle with the very
nature of the brain itself, which has a vested interest in
preventing the beliefs, which structure it's thinking, to be
challenged.
The values-system of any organisation
is its strange attractor1 which gives order to
what would otherwise be chaos. The values system can only operate
as an attractor to create order when members of the organisation
are conscious of their priority values, know why the values are
important, and have a common language of values.
Values
and beliefs clarification is the most important component of the
chaordic design process.
-
Purpose. Define with absolute clarity, common
understanding, and deep conviction, the organisation's collective
purpose. This can be accomplished via a series of workshops
using CMapTools, repertory grids, appreciative inquiry, etc., to
"tease out" the shared meaning lying behind their values.
This component is the key to motivating people in the
workplace - people are highly motivated at work only when their
work makes their life meaningful.
-
Principles. Define a body of
principles against which all structure, decisions, and
conduct will be judged i.e. the fundamental shared understandings
about the 'nature of things' which will guide people in the
organisation. As with purpose, these principles can be made
explicit through an exploration of the underlying shared values
and beliefs of participants in the chaordic design process.
Because we live in a society we cannot live our values
anyway we want. This component of the chaordic design process
ensures shared norms, as to "how things are done around here",
emerge.
-
Concept Organisation. Create a concept
organisation which is congruent with the expressed values,
beliefs, purpose and principles.
-
Structure. Operationalise the purpose,
principles, and concept organisation by developing a
charter, constitution, code-of-ethics, bylaws, etc. in which all
three aspects are embedded as a fundamental web-of-meaning for
governance.
-
People. Identify and draw together the people
and institutions necessary to achieve the purpose in accordance
with the values, beliefs, principles and the defined
structure.
-
Practice. Identify and engage in the
practices required to realise the purpose - i.e. define
organisational strategy and implement all systems, processes and
activities necessary to create the organisation ensuring all are
congruent with the values, beliefs, purpose, principles and
structure.
Concluding Comments
Values alignment, so crucial to an organisation's
success cannot be dictated - though I've seen many try!
Through the chaordic design process, values alignment occurs
as a natural consequence of the interaction of the component
processes - i.e. values alignment becomes an emergent
property.2
The chaordic design process looks
simple, and, up to a point it is. To be successful, people must put
real effort (as against token effort) into exploring their
values and to building the common language of values in their
organisation. I'm tempted to say "no pain, no gain", however, it
does not have to involve pain, exploring one's values can be a fun,
energising exercise - so I'll re-word it, "no values exploration
effort, no gain."
Footnotes
-
A magnet, or an individual value, are both point
attractors. Place a metal ball near a magnet and you know how it
will be attracted to it. Likewise, if a person could have only one
priority value in their life, say achievement, you know all their
behaviour will be directed towards this one value. In the real
world, point attractors can form a system of many point
attractors. A system of many point attractors is known as a
strange attractor because it attracts in strange ways. A
system of individual magnets, each of different strengths, will
still attract a metal ball towards it, however, there's no way of
predicting the path it will follow. Also, in the real world,
people have many values, all with different priorities. This their
values' system, their personal strange attractor. Only through
understanding their values' system are you able to understand
their behaviour. Predicting their behaviour from moment to
moment is not possible, however, through understanding their
values' system, you will be able to predict the general pattern of
their behaviours.
-
An emergent property is
something you cannot predict from knowledge of the individual
components, it's only when the components are combined in a
certain way that the property manifests itself. For example, when
hydrogen and oxygen are combined in a particular way as to form
water (H2O), the emergent property, "wetness",
manifests itself.
References & Suggested
Reading
Clanon, J. 1999, 'Organizational transformation
from the inside out: reinventing the MIT Center for Organizational
Learning', The Learning Organization, Vol 6, No. 4, pp.
147-162.
Chippendale, P. 2005,
'Management by Values', in Carlopio, J., Andrewartha, G. &
Armstrong, H. 2005, Developing Manager Skills: A comprehensive
guide for leaders, Pearson Education, Australia. pp.
119-123
Colins, C. & Chippendale, P. 2002, New
Wisdom II: Values-based development, Acorn Publications,
Brisbane.
Fritz, R. 1999, The Path of Least Resistance
for Managers: Designing organisations to succeed,
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.
Labovitz, G. & Rosansky, V. 1997, The
Power of Alignment: How great companies stay centred and
accomplish extraordinary things, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
New York.
Limerick, D. & Cunnington, B. 1993, Managing
the New Organisation, Business & Professional Publishing,
Chatswood.
Kelly, S. & Allison, M. A. 1999, The
Complexity Advantage: How the science of complexity can help
achieve peak performance, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Parry, K. 1999, Transformational Leadership:
Developing an Enterprising Management Culture, Business &
Professional Publishing, Warriewood.
Wheatley, M. 1992, Leadership and the New
Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe,
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San
Francisco. |