CHAORD

in the phase between CHAos and ORDer, the Fertile Edge of Life

Many leading scientists believe that the principal science of the next century will be the study of complex, autocatalytic, self-organizing, non-linear, adaptive systems, usually referred to as "complexity" or "chaos theory."

They believe that such systems, perhaps even life itself, arise and thrive on the edge of chaos with just enough order to give them pattern, but not so much to slow their adaptation and learning.

(you can download a document with this information if you prefer: chaordicx.doc)

Definitions

The word chaord was formed by borrowing the first syllable of the two words: cha- from chaos, -ord from order.

Chaord - (kay'ord)

1: any autocatalytic, self-regulating, adaptive, nonlinear, complex organism, organization, or system, whether physical, biological or social, the behaviour of which harmoniously exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos.

2: an entity whose behaviour exhibits patterns and probabilities not governed or explained by the behaviour of its parts.

3: the fundamental organizing principle of nature and evolution.

Chaordic - (kay'ordic)

1: anything simultaneously orderly and chaotic.

2: patterned in a way dominated neither by order nor chaos.

3: existing in the phase between order and chaos.

Characteristics of Chaordic Organizations

• Are based on clarity of shared purpose and principles.

• Are self-organizing and self-governing in whole and in part.

• Exist primarily to enable their constituent parts.

• Are powered from the periphery, unified from the core.

• Are durable in purpose and principle, malleable in form and function.

• Equitably distribute power, rights, responsibility and rewards.

• Harmoniously combine cooperation and competition.

• Learn, adapt and innovate in ever expanding cycles.

• Are compatible with the human spirit and the biosphere.

Articles

A New Kind of Organization Based on Purpose and Principle

by Donella Meadows' (Dana) The Global Citizen, December 23, 1999

What do the Internet, Alcoholics Anonymous, and VISA International, the organization that brings us the VISA card, all have in common?

You can find them just about anywhere on earth, that's one common thing.

They have not spread through unrelenting market push, like Coca Cola.

Rather they are pulled by demand, because they meet real needs very effectively.

They serve their purposes successfully year after year without any obvious headquarters, no glittering center of power, no centralized command.

No one owns any of them.

VISA does $1.25 trillion worth of business a year, but you can't buy a share of it.

Dee Hock, who founded VISA, would say these are all chaordic organizations.

He made up that word by combining "chaos" and "order."

Chaordic organizations are self-organizing and self-governing.

They operate not through hierarchies of authority, but through networks of equals.

It isn't power or coercion that makes them effective, rather it's clear shared purpose, ethical operating principles, and responsibility distributed through every node.

Continue reading > > chaordic1

The Chaordic Way of Organization

A Concept Paper - Harlan Cleveland (Draft)

In order to think through what it will mean to organize human activity "chaordically," which is to say in an uncentralized fashion, we will need to consider:

• How we got here -- the shift from hierarchical to uncentralized

organizations;

• The role of information, now the world's dominant resource, in speeding and facilitating that shift;

• The central role of standards in making uncentralization work; and

• The evident steps along the path to chaordic organization.

Continue reading > > chaordic2

Reading List

http://www.chaordic.org/six_lens_overview.html

The Wholeness of Nature:

Goethe's Way toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature

Henri Bortoft - Lindisfarne Press - 1996

An excellent in depth exploration of different ways of perceiving science, nature and humankind.

The Web of Life:

A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems

Fritjof Capra - Doubleday - 1996

An accessible introduction to essential principles of ecology and living systems, with an aim to illuminating their implications for how we design sustainable communities.

Engines of Creation:

The Coming Era of Nanotechnology - K. Eric Drexler - Anchor Books, Doubleday 1986

A very good introduction to the technology which lies ahead. If read with the thought in mind of what this will mean to social, institutional and economic change, it will stretch the mind.

The Soul's Code

In Search of Character and Calling

A penetrating exploration of the wholeness of mind, body, spirit and soul, as opposed to the Newtonian/Cartesian concept that they are separate entities and that the self is separate from the world.

Birth of the Chaordic Age

Dee Hock skillfully weaves together the story of VISA with his own remarkable life story and visionary philosophy to describe a new form of organization he calls "chaordic".

The Self-Organizing Universe:

Scientific and Human Implications of the emerging Paradigm of Evolution

Erich Jantsch - Pergamon Press - 1980

One of the first books to provide an overview of the emerging paradigm of self-organization, with an emphasis on sociocultural systems. A classic, though challenging.

Out of Control:

The Rise of Neo Biological Civilization

Kevin Kelley - Addison-Wesley Publishing - 1994.

An interesting compendium of where such thinking about self-organizing systems and the technologies for creating them are leading in a variety of fields.

Earth In Mind:

On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect

David W. Orr - Island Press – 1994

An educator and environmentalist explores the deep connections between education, ecology, agriculture, ethics and the politics of place.

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See the Chaordic Commons Library http://www.chaordic.org/learn/resource.html

Bunsha: Improving Your Business Through Division

Kuniyasu Sakai and Hiroshi Sakiyama.

Intercultural Group Inc. (ICG pocket business book not easily available.) - Small book by noted Japanese businessman about a successful, radically different way of structuring ownership and management. Explodes some myths about how Japanese manufacturing works.

The Dance of Change:

The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations

Peter Senge and others – 1999

Leaders in the field of organizational learning share lessons learned from their experience. A useful collection of perspectives that goes beyond theory to see how well ideas can actually be practiced in contemporary business and organizational settings.

Complexity:

The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

M. Mitchel Waldrup

Simon & Schuster - 1992 - A good summary of the scientific work now emerging, with rather more emphasis on the Santa Fe Institute and personalities therein.

Leadership and the New Science

Margaret Wheatley - Berrett-Koehler - 1992

A fundamental overview of some of the core concepts and fields pertinent to chaordic organization.

A good foundation for understanding complexity theory.

A Simpler Way

Provocative observations about the fundamental processes of self-organization and the application of living systems theory to the organization of human activity, by two leading organizational theorists.

Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem

Michael Rothschild - Henry Holt & Co. - 1990