Dear LO'ers,
It is probably a good moment to write something about the growth, the
possible decline and the ability of keeping vivid of an organization.
Instead of starting with the metaphor of crystals, I will start with the
organisations. I am also trying to clarify the discussion between At de
Lange and Winfried Dressler about the decrease of Free Energy without
using formulas. If done so, I will return to crystallization processes and
say some words about granitization, the invitation that At made in his
contribution LO21315.
But before starting with this story, I like to put your attention to a
strange coincidence. While At was writing his Digestor (LO21272)
explaining the growth of crystals, I wrote in the Icebreaker-discussion
(LO21284) about a simmilar topic (the recrystallisation within a
flowing glacier). Both are complementary.
But let's start with the nucleus of an organisation.
THE NUCLEUS
With the birth of a child, a new seedling is arrived. A seedling with the
potential to be the nucleus of an organization. There is an internal will
to grow. When grown-up, the adult still has a will to grow: it will look
for companions. Two people match and will form a bond. This bond could be
a couple starting a family, or it could be a companionship that starts a
business. It depends of the fruitfullness of this match, whether there is
a new and further impulse of the will to grow. Remember two things: the
couple consists of two individuals, and the degree of organization is
high. This latter is because with two elements the organization is either
next to eachother (a horizontal relationship: partnership), or one above
the other (vertical: boss-apprentence; teacher-pupil). Mixt bonds
(horizontal AND vertical) are less strong, show less degree in ordering
and this organization will have less potential to grow.
Both, the vertical or the horizontal relationship show a strong linkage.
The stronger the link, the more the couple forms a new unit with a strong
will to grow. Other individuals (childs, colleagues) might join and the
couple becomes a small group.
THE GROWTH AND ORDER OF AN ORGANISATION
With the formation of a group of more than two individuals, one must
realise that the degree of order might decrease. The chances of
missmatches becomes higher and higher with increasing number of elements.
The group could form several types of ordering. For instance, the group
could form a horizontal, or a vertical chain. The order of the chain
depends on the sizes of, and distances between the elements and the
strength of each link. Just imagine a chain of people, either next to each
other and holding their hands, or back to each other with their hands on
the shoulders of the person before them. There is a great degree of
order.Those in the middle of the chain are reasonably fixed and well
linked. However the persons at the ends of the chain miss something. If
the attraction of the chain is strong enough, they will stay part of the
chain. But if the link is weak, they will possibly be attracked to another
group, or they will be lost as individual. At least, these elements are
vulnarable to attacks from their environment. Also links within the chain
may show weak parts, and the chain could easily break in two parts.
All sorts of patterns and arrangements are possible. One will be better
organised than the other. But the number of imperfections of the ordering
increase with increasing size of the group. This will cause break-up of
the coherency and the group may split in new and smaller and better
organised groups.
So the higher the degree of organisation (pattern and links) the better
the coherency and the higher the will to join the group. This will is also
a will to grow further. The 'attractivity' of an ordered and organised
group is higher than of a group with greater disorder. But also is it true
that a large group might have great attractivity to its surroundings.
However, this is only if this large group is internally in reasonable
order. Only in that case the internal will, the internal energy is
structured because the energy of each individual in the group is parallel.
This energy is thus used to (a) keep the internal structure in the high
degree of order; (b) internal reorganisation with the creation of new,
smaller units of a higher degree of structure; (c) and/or for growth of
the group.
But again, the higher the number, the greater the risk for imperfections
and the chance to break-up.
That's why small organisations with a high degree of internal order can
compete with large organisations with internal imperfections. The small
one could use its energy for growth, the large one must use its energy for
keeping its internal structure as coherent as possible. The risk for large
organisations is the break-up in smaller and better organised units; or it
could be victim to erosion, prey for a better organised competitor. The
break-up could be triggered by environmental influences (external forces).
This could lead to a reshuffling of the organisation or outsourcing, or
the complete cut of units and devisions ('back to basics', back to the
core business). The result is that a lot of the available energy is now
used for the creation of new units with a higher degree of order.
In the former paragraph something new is introduced: the environmental
influence. Obviously, there is a relationship between organisation and
environment. There is a competition between these two. A competition that
is mainly balanced by size and degree of order. A well organised small
company may grow in a chaotic environment. But if for instance a number of
competative companies merge into a new organization of a higher degree of
order, the small company becomes vulnarable and will easily become a prey.
Even a company like Microsoft will reach a moment that the internal
structure becomes less organised and if competators join together
(creating a better structure), the size of Microsoft is probably not
enough anymore to protect itself. Now the balance is still positive
towards Microsoft because of its size, but maybe in the future it will be
beaten by a smaller preditor with a higher degree of structure.
As we see in modern merging of companies and the protections against
unwanted take-overs, some organisations create barriers against the
outside world. These barriers are always temporary and vulnarable to
erosion. If the protection of the barrier last long enough, a period for
internal reorganisation and better internal ordering may become available.
Before I enter into the crystallography, some words about the terminology,
used by At and Winfried in their Digestor-discussion.
FREE ENERGY AND ENTROPY
Untill now I have written about groups of people, energy and the will. I
have not given precise definitions of these words. But I hope that you are
able to find the parallels between the WILL within the group and the FREE
ENERGY.
In a company, the total amount of available energy is used for:
a) production activities (where the company is ment for), and
b) to protect, to grow and/or to keep an eye on the organisational
structure.
It is this latter (b) which parallels with the free energy. Without the
influence (work) of the environment, this part of the energy is gradually
decreasing. And if this situation last long enough, the company becomes so
large that the degree of disorder (chaos) will reach its maximum (entropy
production), or the company passes a point were the creation of new
organisations may occur. However, the potention to protect vades away and
the company may become prey.
[For the readers who see the links already, it is hopefully clear that all
the words used until now are another explanation of the graphs that At de
Lange has constructed (see
http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/9904Graph1.gif, Graph2.GIF and
Graph3.GIF)]
It is only because of work from the environment that the company could
survive, grow further, or splitup into smaller better organised units. It
is because the environment introduces new free energy into the company.
This is what happens in the glacier: the constant fight of the new born
ice crystals with well structured lattic, against the larger, disordered
crystals. The small ones win, because of the much greater disorder of the
lattices in the large ones. So the small ones are the preditors, but they
become soon the large ones, so they finally end as prey for the next
generation.
So let's look for other parallels in crystallography. I also try to keep
the connection with organisations vivid.
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC PARALLEL
I hope that you are able to see the parallel between the people joining a
human organisation with the atoms that may form a crystal.
An organization may be composed of identical building elements (humans
(clones) of the same length, same age, same gender, same character, etc.),
or it is composed of a mix of different humans. If the order of the total
organisation is high, it means that the organisation is composed of
identical unit cells (building elements) composed of several humans.
In a crystal we have the same: crystals composed of one element, forming
with other identical atoms a unit cell (like diamond, entirely composed of
the element Carbon; graphite is another crystal entirely composed of
Carbon, but the unit cell differ from diamond)); or composed of two
elements (e.g. ice), or the crystal is composed of a greater number of
different atoms, forming a larger unit cell. The denser the order, the
better the links and bonds between elements within the unit cell and
between the unit cells. The denser, the harder the crystal. Or in
organisational terms: the better and stronger the links, the stronger the
organization (stronger against erosion and attacks from outside). Diamond
is much denser and thus much harder than graphite. In fact, diamond could
very well be the better ordered result of an emergency that occurred with
graphite.
Since human beings are all different (contrary to atoms), it is a hard
task to form well-ordered organisations. These 'crystals' always will show
lots of defects. Even the building elements (unit cells) are never
identical. So a lot of the free energy should be used to keep the
not-so-well structure of the organisation as good as possible. But if the
organisation is able to orient and bundle the various available forces,
the company may grow too (if new humans who fit the organisation are
available from the environment).
How about the situation of a mixture of various organisations? This is
somewhat like a granite. A granite is a rock composed of a number of
minerals that crystallised from a melt.
The chemical composition of this melt does not differ very much from the
average composition of continental rocks. [BTW, it was a very heavy
scientific discussion in the former century, whether granites originated
from an original magma in the depth of the Earth, or that the granite is
the result of melting of continental rock in the depth of the Earth. We
now know that both origins do occur].
The average granite is composed of, say 6 minerals: mica, alkali-feldspar,
plagioclase-feldspar, quartz, and some minor amounts of a rest group (all
sorts of tiny minerals; they are the result of all the rest elements which
do not fit in the lattices of the other crystals, like Fe, P, Mn, etc). I
have put these six minerals also in the general order of crystallisation.
So when the melt cools down, the first crystals that develop are the
mica's, the last ones are quartz and the restgroup. All these minerals
have their own chemical composition. Apart from the restgroup, all the
others are silicates (silicium oxydes). In brackets the specific chemical
element(s) for each mineral is given: mica (Al, Mg), alkali-feldspar (K,
Na), plagioclase-feldspar (Na, Ca) and quartz (which is SiO2).
So in the melting pot of magma, a variety of chemical elements are
available. As soon as the magma slowly cools down, and the first crystals
of mica appear, the chemical composition of the magma changes (since
aluminum, magnesium, and silica are distracted into the mica's). It is
important to know that
a) in the beginning crystals have the space to grow freely, and
b) the growth depends on the availability of elements used by the crystal,
and the mobility of these elements (how easy is it to 'catch' or attract
the elements from the melt into the crystal).
After mica, both feldspars crystallise. Because the chemical composition
of the surrounding is changing during the crystal growth, the composition
of the feldspars in their cores show another composition than their rims.
Since K, Na and Ca have roughly the same atomic radius, they all fit
reasonably well in the crystal lattice. So the structure of the growing
feldspar crystals is kept in order, although the composition may be
different.
But with the growing crystals the original melt changes drastically:
a) the space for free grow of crystals becomes sparse, and
b) the availability of elements decreases, as does the mobility (lowering
temperature, much more barriers).
So it is not easy for the final parts of the melt to produce nice
crystals. This rest melt consists of Si O2 (which was in access available,
and elements that did not fit in the already formed crystals). In fact the
rest space will be occupied by small quartz grains which forms the matrix
around the large earlier crystals. The melt is now completely
crystallised.
With this story in mind we may look to the world of organisations again.
If it was possible to start with a complete and chaotic mixture of people
in a certain area (as a comparison with the melt), after some time nuclei
start to form. Nuclei will grow fast into groups, if the necessary people
is available. Groups with different compositions may occur. It is very
well possible that these groups grow one after the other (since the
'composition' of the chaotic mixture outside the groups changes).
Finally, a rest mixture may be left. A mixture composed either of an
excess of a sort of people which could not anymore be combined in the
groups, or there is a kind of persons left which fit in no group at all.
This rest mixture may form small groups within themselves.
It is a description of how cultures and nations and other forms of
organisations develop in the early history of mankind. A stable situation
is realised, if no extra energy was introduced from the universe. However,
extra energy is introduced. So the also the free energy of the groups will
build-up, and reorganisations will occur. And again, the story of
magnitude and order comes in again.
We may look to the history of mankind and nations. The growth and decline
of the Roman Empire. We may look at recent history. Look with a
crystallographic eye to what happens in the Balkan. What had happened
already for 150 years in the Balkan. It is the constant conquest between
size and order.
But way may also leave the political scene and look to business
organisations and companies.
Since we cannot avoid the input of extra energy into all the systems on
Earth, this conquest between size and order will continue.
EPILOGUE
Again, it became a lengthy contribution. And while I am typing these words
on wednesday morning 21 of April, a new contribution of At de Lange
arrived (LO21350). At made also the link between the icebreaker and the
digestor. All these contributions are lengthy. It is because the free
energy was so high, that the crystallisation process of our contributions
resulted in rapid growth. I hope that our contributions - despite their
size - will have enough order to comprehend.
dr. Leo D. Minnigh
minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
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Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
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--Leo Minnigh <L.D.Minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
