Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
However, the sense of individual purpose is not absent from Wheatley's writings.
We all seek meaning in our lives, and sometimes, though not always successfully,
in our work, because most people are creative and often quite passionate. The ethical
and spiritual dimension is aptly summarized when she writes that in 'a systems-
seeking world, we find wellbeing only when we remember that we belong together'
(Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers 1999: 64). In other words, systems are part of us,
systems influence us and, by extension, we influence systems, enabling them to 'self-
organize' to higher levels of complexity so as to deal more effectively with present
contingencies, dangers and other influences. Many sustainable development prac-
titioners draw on this insight by recognizing the significance of the concept of
'emergence' and elevating it to the level of principle. Interactivity leads to the
emergence of new structures, possibilities and properties that stand outside and
beyond the explicit knowledge and formal configuration of every organization.
For the new to emerge, we need to participate openly and trustingly rather than just
strategize, action plan, work plan and implement. We may need to visualize things
differently - metaphorically, visually, poetically - to arrive at understanding, adapta-
tion and the adoption of new capacities and capabilities. For Capra (2002: 107),
'the ability to express a vision in metaphors, to articulate it in such a way that it is
understood and embraced by all, is an essential quality of leadership'. Building on
this, Wheatley (1999) argues that a vision is a power and not place or destination.
It is essentially an influence rendering congruent the messages and values we care
about and the behaviours needed to realize them. Visions can offer and nurture
clarity and integrity, but organizations need to be open to new ideas and new
knowledge in order to facilitate emergence, and leaders must create this openness
by nurturing a learning culture through encouraging questioning and rewarding
innovation. Such a culture will value diversity and tolerate marginal and sometimes
maverick activities that provide stretch, difference and novelty. It is not just about
speedily applied new technologies, information processing or instant sticking-plaster
solutions. It is often the product of long reflection, meditation and thought.
For Wheatley and Capra, people and organizations do not resist change unless
they are treated as non-living, non-creative and irresponsible things. In nature,
change never happens in a directed, top-down, preconceived fashion. Change begins
at quite low and localized levels, often simultaneously and in many places. And the
levels will remain localized unless, or until, they are connected in some way, and
when they do, change emerges powerfully on a larger scale (or scales). Organizational
and human relationships, communities of practice, and social and knowledge networks
are the ways in which knowledge is created, learning generated, innovation diffused
and new practices implemented. Relationships open up a variety of potentialities,
serving to close off expectations that the world is ultimately predictable. For Wheatley
(1999), what gives power its charge, and people and organizations their creative
force, is the quality of these relationships. People become different persons in different
places, they become surprising and more interesting, they stop arguing about the
nature of truth and look to what works. In engaging with their environments, they
help fashion those environments in creative ways. Change occurs and change can
be directed because of the critical connections between and among these relation-
ships. Thinking should be strategic and should displace the desire to plan and to
learn 'skills'. The ability to analyse and predict should be replaced by a capability
to understand what is happening now 'and we need to be better, faster learners from
