Leadership in Chaordic Organizations

Definition of Complexity and Its Impact on Organizations; B. E. White
Definition of Complexity
     Complex System Behaviors
          Surprising Emergence
          Evolves on Its Own as a Whole
          Acts Robustly
          Thrives on Diversity
          Many Factors at Play
          Stimulates Different Perspectives
          Ever Changing
          Informs the Observer
          Performs Openly
          Internal and External Relationships Are Key
          Self-Organized
          Sensitive to Small Effects
          Exhibits Tight and Loose Couplings
     Complex Systems Engineering Principles
          Bring Humility
          Follow Holism
          Achieve Balance
          Utilize Trans-Disciplines
          Embrace POET (Political, Operational, Economic, and Technical) Aspects
          Nurture Discussions
          Pursue Opportunities
          Formulate Heuristics
          Foster Trust
          Create an Interactive Environment
          Stimulate Self-Organization
          Seek Simple Elements
          Enforce Layered Architecture
     Human Behavior
Impact on Organizations
     Overarching Fragility Concern
     Recognize That Complex Systems Can Do Better than We Can

The Nature of Being Human; B. G. McCarter
Mind and the Brain: An Overview
Basics of the Brain
Mind, Body, and Environment Interaction
The Mind and Emergence
Images and Knowledge: What Is Reality?
Innate Dispositions for Survival
Beyond the Non-Conscious
Emotions
Reason and Decision Making
Synopsis

How to Build Trust; B. E. White and B. G. McCarter
Perspectives on Trust
     World Politics, Religions, and Fear
     Biases of Individuals, Groups, and Organizations
     Learning in Organizations
     Storytelling
     Perceptions of Reality and Power
     Applying Laws of Power and Getting Inside
Types of Trust
     Persistent Trust
     How Your Emotions May Affect Your Trust
     Interpersonal Trust When Not Face to Face
     Trust and Inter-Reality Systems
     Trust in Mental Health
     Trusting with Limited Interpersonal Contact
Implications for Leadership
Recapitulation

Collective Group Dynamics: A New View of High-Performance Teams; B. E. White
Introduction
Characteristics of Traditional Teams
     Enneagram^©
     Cynefin Framework
     Examples and Level of Commitment
     Behaviors
Distributed Team Models
     Serious Games/Virtual Worlds for Training
     Difficulties in Distributed Environments
     X-Teams
     Exploration of Dissenting Individual Mindsets
     Program/Project Management
     Information Sharing
     Guilds
     Organizational Learning
Implications for Leadership in Chaordic Organizations
Summary
     Takeaways

Application of Theory; B. G. McCarter
Complex Adaptive Systems: A Reprise of Previous Chapters
Conflict
Process Enneagram©
Change
How to Facilitate Change in Organizations
Counseling Skills and Techniques
Specific Techniques
     Core Values
     Ground Rules
     Evaluating Group Processes
     Social Systems
     The Individual
     Changing Our Behaviors
     Views of Reality
     Human Systems:—What Makes Them Complex
          Today’s Problems Come from Yesterday’s Solutions
          The Harder You Push, the Harder the System Pushes Back
          Behavior Grows Better before It Gets Worse
          The Easy Way Out Usually Leads Back In
          Faster Is Slower
          Cause and Effect Are Not Closely Related in Time and Space
          Small Changes Can Produce Big Results, but the Areas of Highest Leverage Are Often the Least Obvious
          Dividing an Elephant in Half Does Not Produce Two Elephants
          There Is No Blame
Summary

Wicked Problems and MUVEs: Understanding Human Interactions through Multiuser Virtual Environments; B. G. McCarter
Dynamics of Living Human Systems at Work
Psychology of Virtual Worlds
Next Level of Interaction and Learning
Narrative Structures and the Underlying Psychological Dynamics

Appendices:
Mini-Lexicon of Selected Terms
INCOSE Working Group Sidebar on Complex Systems
Quotations from The 48 Laws of Power
Research for Virtual Worlds’ Promotion of Oxytocin
On the Information Explosion
On the Deeper Impact of Virtual Worlds
Web Collaboration, Workspace, Blog Platforms

Biography

Beverly Gay McCarter is an award-winning architect of immersive virtual environments whose company, Human Mosaic Systems (www.HumanMosiacSystems.com), is located in Cary, North Carolina (Research Triangle Park). She received her MS degree in counseling psychology and human systems from Florida State University and her MFA in studio art from the Memphis College of Art. She is also certified in the areas of facilitating self-organizing systems for complex environments (the Center for Self-Organizing Leadership) and the design and architecture of virtual worlds (University of Washington). While working as an independent contractor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, she instructed faculty and Pentagon leadership in the navigation and use of virtual worlds, in addition to coordinating and executing the efforts of the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds to bring the federal government into virtual worlds. McCarter is an architect/designer of 3D immersive virtual environments focusing on the psychology of the avatar and virtual worlds, the inherent complex dynamics involved, as well as the impact of the aesthetics of 3D immersive environments on complex human systems. She has advised the Pentagon virtual simulation teams, a solution provider for Linden Labs' Second Life virtual world, and currently works in a variety of other immersive virtual platforms. As a facilitator, McCarter has worked with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, among others, facilitating group discussions untangling the wicked problems of social interactions that overwhelm today's organizational structures.McCarter is an award-winning artist, focusing on human dynamics and the inherent effects of complexity and the edge-of-chaos on human consciousness. Her work emphasizes the ability to see multiple perspectives and the complexity of who we are, and our relationships with others.Through the int

For this book, Beverly Gay McCarter, and Brian E. White have gathered, organized, and interpreted an immense amount of information. They bring together the thinking from chaos and complexity theory, psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and neuroscience, helping readers better understand the nature and challenges of leadership … .
—Richard N. Knowles, Principal and Organizational Anthropologist, Richard N. Knowles & Associates, Inc., Youngstown, New York