Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
qualify any notion of purely voluntaristic action or planned management outcomes.
A self-organizing or autopoietic system selects flows of information or influence,
enabling it to develop or change its internal structure spontaneously and adaptively.
What it integrates is not so much a product of conscious decision-making, but rather
the system's capacity to make sense of, and rearticulate or redesign, itself in accordance
with what it encounters. A self-organizing system is not determined by an established
series of specific goals or targets. Rather it may be said to have a function shaped
by and within the overall context in which it operates. This is a lesson for leaders
and managers of the sustainability process.
It is also the basis of James Lovelock's highly influential Gaia hypothesis and the
work of Fritjof Capra (1996), who argues that a basic set of principles derived from
our understanding of ecosystems as self-organizing networks and dissipative structures
may serve as guidelines for building sustainable human communities of practice,
experience and hope in business, the community and elsewhere. These principles
include interdependence and networking, non-linear relationships, cyclical processes,
flexibility and partnership, implying democracy, enrichment and personal empower-
ment. Management theorist Peter Senge (1990, 1999) argues that our focus must be
on generative and creative learning that sees systems as shaping events. When we
fail to grasp the systemic source of problems such as economic growth, we are left
to 'push on' symptoms rather than eliminate underlying causes. Adaptive learning
is simply about coping, but coping is not enough. To create a learning organization
and sustainable human communities, non-hierarchical, lateral and co-operative
leadership is needed. As Senge writes:
Leadership in learning organizations centres on subtler and ultimately more
important work [than simply energizing the troops]. In a learning organization,
leaders' roles differ from that of the charismatic decision-maker. Leaders are
designers, teachers and stewards. These roles require new skills: the ability to
build shared vision, to bring to the surface and challenge prevailing mental
models, and to foster more systemic patterns of thinking. In short, leaders in
learning organizations are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their
future - that is, leaders are responsible for learning.
(1990 [2008]: 489)
In
Leaders and the New Science
(Wheatley, 1999) and
A Simpler Way
(Wheatley
and Kellner-Rogers, 1999), Meg Wheatley develops an approach to leadership and
organizations that is deeply rooted in systems thinking and eco-philosophy. Life, she
writes, is about invention, creativity, self-organization, order, functionality (what
works), relationships and networks. All manner of possibilities emerge when people
connect with one another, when there is freedom to experiment in a playful way or
to see the world differently and to fashion something new and exciting. Much
emphasis is placed on co-evolution, collectivities and interdependencies. For Wheatley,
there can be no heroes or visionary leaders and little place for individuals in a world
perceived as so many interweaving systems, networks and webs:
We make the world lonelier and less interesting by yearning for heroes. We deny
the constant, inclusionary creating that is going on; we deny our own capacity
to contribute and expand.
(Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers, 1999: 44)
