G'day Michael and All In my take the notion of spontaneous order fits well with the idea that organisations are complex responding systems rather than adapting systems.
A nice article on this, 'How stories affect human action in organisations ' (with a focus on Ralph Stacey's thinking) can be seen at http://website.lineone.net/~frank.smits/Essays/Stories.htm which was posted recently by that wondrous source of useful ideas on handling complex issues, Plexus Institute. With love Alan Adelaide ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Herman" <mher...@globalchicago.net> To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 8:15 AM Subject: spontaneous order > from my weblog today at http://www.globalchicago.net/weblog > > ...been doing much thinking recently on open space as the possibility > for corporate compassion... embodying responsible care in organization. > here's my latest discovery. a rock-solid business version of the > biology/self-org story we've played with for so long. self-org meet > "spontaneous order"... > > michael h > > -- > > Discovering Hayek > > On F. A. Hayek <http://www.mises.org/hayekbio.asp> (1899-1992) and > knowledge, prices, and competition as a discovery procedure... > > In "Economics and Knowledge" (1937) and "The Use of Knowledge in > Society" (1945) Nobel Laureate Hayek argued that the central > economic problem facing society is not, as is commonly expressed in > textbooks, the allocation of given resources among competing ends. > "It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources > known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative > importance only those individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is > a problem of the utilization of knowledge not given to anyone in its > totality." > > Much of the knowledge necessary for running the economic system, > Hayek contended, is in the form not of "scientific" or technical > knowledge--the conscious awareness of the rules governing natural > and social phenomena--but of "" (unconscious? circumstantial? tacit? > latent?*) knowledge, the idiosyncratic, dispersed bits of > understanding of "circumstances of time and place." This tacit > knowledge is often not consciously known even to those who possess > it and can never be communicated to a central authority. The market > tends to use this tacit knowledge through a type of "discovery > procedure," by which this information is unknowingly transmitted > throughout the economy as an unintended consequence of individuals' > pursuing their own ends. > > For Hayek, market competition generates a particular kind of > order--an order that is the product "of human action but not human > design" (a phrase Hayek borrowed from Adam Smith's mentor Adam > Ferguson). This "spontaneous order" is a system that comes about > through the independent actions of many individuals, and produces > overall benefits unintended and mostly unforeseen by those whose > actions bring it about. > > To distinguish between this kind of order and that of a deliberate, > planned system, Hayek used the Greek terms cosmos for a spontaneous > order and taxis for a consciously planned one. Examples of a cosmos > include the market system as a whole, money, the common law, and > even language. A taxis, by contrast, is a designed or constructed > organization, like a firm or bureau; these are the "islands of > conscious power in [the] ocean of unconscious cooperation like lumps > of butter coagulating in a pail of buttermilk." > > Most commentators view Hayek's work on knowledge, discovery, and > competition as an outgrowth of his participation in the socialist > calculation debate of the 1920s and 1930s. The socialists erred, in > Hayek's view, in failing to see that the economy as a whole is > necessarily a spontaneous order and can never be deliberately made > over in the way that the operators of a planned order can exercise > control over their organization. This is because planned orders can > handle only problems of strictly limited complexity. Spontaneous > orders, by contrast, tend to evolve through a process of natural > selection, and therefore do not need to be designed or even > understood by a single mind. > > Italic in this last paragraph are mine. This is the case for > OpenSpaceTech > <http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTech>. The planned > orders of our organizations simply can not handle the levels of > complexity and adaptation that most organizations are facing. The only > compassionate thing to do is look carefully at the knowns and > unknowns... and then to use planned orders for what we know and use > OpenSpaceTech <http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTech> > to discover and invite spontaneous orders to address all of the real and > uncertain complexities, diversities, urgencies and conflicts we face. > > The compassion (and the vision, wisdom and real power) comes in seeing > the distinctions between the knowns and unknowns, plan-able and > un-plan-able, without separating, discounting or attempting to dominate > either one with the tools and temperment that work with the other. Give > to Ceasar what is Ceasar's... > > -- > > Michael Herman > Michael Herman Associates > 300 West North Avenue #1105 > Chicago IL 60610 USA > (312) 280-7838 > > http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications > http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground > http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space > > ...inviting organization into movement > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html