At and Fellow LOers:
It is an amazing function of this list that a simple - yet important, and
seemingly innocent question - becomes expanded into a great philosophical
debate. I love it.
At, you are discussing, essentially, order -vs.- chaos. I find this very
interesting in that I just finished a book, adventure/fiction, that
addresses this very topic. This book is the first in a series by
Modessett,L.E. Jr. called The Magic of Recluse. Without going into great
detail the main character, a Black Wizard, has to find self-discipline and
knowledge to defeat the powerful and evil White Wizard and end chaos. To
do so he has to decide how to end chaos without destroying order because
they are related.
He has found, in a slightly easier format than your formula At, that chaos
can not exist without order and that order can not exist without chaos.
This follows the premise that if there were no chaos there would be no
need for order and if there were no order, chaos could not come into
being. To put it into your way of putting things At: If entropy equals
zero there is no chaos and all things end because there is no energy to
hold things together.
Within an organization order is essential or the prime function of that
organization becomes invalid. To much work out not enough energy or
resource in leads to the demise of the organization through financial
starvation. The same is true for too much chaos, essentially no
production despite the amount of energy expended or received, also leads
to failure and death of the organization. The balance is just enough
chaos to allow for change and to balance out the EXCESS energy of your
formula At.
If a machined bearing is not milled within specific tolerances the shaft
rotating on it will destroy itself by producing too much chaos
(vibration). If it is milled to too tight a set of tolerances it will
seize from too much order for there is no way to reduce excess energy
through expansion. So a little chaos MUST be designed into the system for
it to operate efficiently.
Ice breakers are essentially a beginning of the milling process of a new
employee or learner. If done incorrectly the group will destroy itself
through chaos because the group loses cohesion or too tight a bond is made
and the new group of employees or learners become a separate entity not
able to fit into the rest of the corporate culture. The icebreaker, if
done properly, allows for a little chaos so there is room to grow and
leeway to join the corporate paradigm.
My $.02 !
Bruce W. Jones
Organizational Development Specialist
Northwest Texas Healthcare System
Amarillo, Texas
brucej@nwths.com
brucewj@amaonline.com
http://www.scenemaker.com/anon/495/cover.dhtml
--"Bruce Jones" <brucej@nwths.com>
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...Rick]
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