Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon

5.4 Reflections from a complex responsive process perspective
Undoubtedly the performance agreements will keep on being directives for our policy,
with an intention of the board to accomplish them with reliance upon self-organization
for successful action. In this way I assume a tense situation will evolve in our UAS,
in which tensions will grow between processes of self-organization and sharply defined
performance indicators. It could become a paradox of creative and innovative
non linearity, and wished for precision close to an equilibrium of fulfilling the demands
of the performance agreements (Hodge and Coronado, 2007). In the next years it will
be interesting to explore the actions on different levels which will evolve to meet the
performance criteria.
If this tension occurs I will be co-responsible due to my actions during the development
of the performance agreements. As ‘the author’ of the final document I am
co-responsible amongst others for bringing together two different approaches about
how to deal with the agreements. However, in my experience none of the involved
managed to act as a change agent compelling to draft a well-defined and well planned
project with clear objectives.
From the perspective of a complex responsive process-approach I realize that the way
things happened have quite some other dimensions. Instead of being blushed with
shame, as one of the readers of the above account experienced, because of the seemingly
disorderly way we proceeded, it is thought-provoking to reflect upon the way
our policy actually developed. The final and polished document covers up an experience
of disorder, although ‘dynamic’ would be a better marker.
To uncover what is beneath the polished surface of the document I will explore some
concepts of complexity and a complex responsive process-approach related to my
narrative. Uncertainty, breakthroughs, self-organization, power and interdependency
will pass in review. This exploration should help me to understand what happened and
should help me to understand what it means to depart form a complexity perspective.
Dynamic uncertainty
Given the lack of focussed attention, the difference in opinions among the members of
the board, the political uncertainty and pressure, the late arrival of the evaluation
framework, the different interests of the deans and directors of services, the lack of
clarity in definitions and the short span of time I could speak of a local dynamic situation,
in which all these elements are lived through. With hindsight I can assume that
given these circumstances the outcome of the process was unpredictable. “It is true
that there is still a trajectory description if initial conditions are known with infinite
precision. But this does not correspond to any realistic situation.” (Prigogine, 1996:105),
a situation which clearly resembles the starting phase of drafting the performance
agreements. Even from the midst of April, when the deadline came nearer and quite
some discussions had taken place, it would have been hard to predict what the out-
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