David Peat

From Clockwork to Chaos 149Lessons from chaos theory show that energy is always needed forreorganization. And for a new order to appear an organization must bewilling to allow a measure of chaos to occur; chaos being that which noone can totally control. It means entering a zone where no one canpredict the final outcome or be truly confident as to what will happen.Yet, in the last analysis, all organizations and groups deal in humanrelationships. And this means they deal in fears, disappointments,and aspirations. It means taking into account those who, for severalyears, may have felt slighted, snubbed, not given proper respect, or notlistened to. Change may offend vested interests and threaten those whosimply want to keep doing the same old job. This is where the metaphorof chaos theory has its limits, for organizations are composed ofhuman beings and not abstract sets of feedback loops. Human beingsneed to feel respected. Most of them like being part of a group. Most ofthem wish to feel challenged and their creativity fully used. What’smore, human beings need to feel that there is a meaning and purposeto their lives. Part of this meaning comes from the warmth of theirfamily and friends and part from their work. It is not money alone thatattracts an employee or manager but the challenge of work. It is thepossibility of learning new skills, of extending oneself, and of feelingthat one is doing something useful and meaningful in the world. Highlycreative people are willing to take a drop in salary to move into anorganization or field in which they feel truly creative, or one that isethically satisfying in that it does something positive for society or forthe environment.Many of the social and political movements that arose in the pastdecades spoke to people who felt themselves marginalized and disenfranchised—peopleof particular races or sexual orientations, women,or those who have particular mental or physical disabilities that preventthem functioning in the same way as the majority of the population.People may feel themselves discriminated against, often throughthe subtle and largely unconscious attitudes of others. It is only whenwe are open to change and renewal that we realize that we belong insidesociety, that a healthy and creative group, society, or organizationis not something external to us but, in the last analysis, it becomes theexpression of each one of us, and each of us shares in its meaning.