1st Edition
Leadership in Chaordic Organizations
Supplying a clear vision of how to build high-performance teams, Leadership in Chaordic Organizations presents methods for improving operations through the application of complex systems engineering principles and psychological counseling techniques. Ideal for systems engineers, organizational managers, coaches, and psychologists, it addresses the fundamental issue of the human condition in systems development.
The book considers the dynamic variables inherent in the human condition and how they impact group dynamics. Helping you to demystify complex system behaviors, it details an approach to leadership that integrates elements of neurobiology, systems engineering, complexity science, philosophy, and evolutionary and social psychology. It defines complexity and its impact on the organization and also explains how conflict can actually be constructive in group settings. Sharing helpful tips on how to build trust in today’s environment, the book also:
- Describes how the human condition affects group dynamics
- Lays out current problems and outlines workable solutions
- Shares a new vision of high-performance teams
- Illuminates theory with applications
Illustrating what teams and collaborative groups look like in a decentralized environment, the text introduces a highly effective group communications process invented by Richard Knowles—describing its use in designing 3D Immersive Learning Environments that enable complex emergence in dynamic interactive simulations. It also discusses complex human systems (Wicked Problems) and the potential of multi-user virtual environments to provide the transformative vision needed to fully engage all employees in your drive to make your organization more effective, efficient, and sustainable.
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. McCarterPerspectives 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. McCarterComplex 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
References
Bibliography
Index
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