cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

Complex changeThe final stage involves a short reflective meditation by the group, andthen answers to the following questions are invited:• What is emerging here?• If the whole group could speak, what would it say?• Did we notice any patterns, and if so, what might they indicate?• What deeper knowledge or understanding are we now holding?Ideas used by permission from The World Café Community Foundationat www.theworldcafe.comTHE ROLE OF LEADERS IN COMPLEX CHANGEIn Chapter 4 we talked about the leaders who operate using the assumptionsof the flux and transformation metaphor as ‘facilitators of emergentchange’. This gives us a good starting point for thinking about the role ofa leader in complex change. We also said that three main tasks of this typeof leader were to get the governing principles right, enable the rightamount of connectivity and amplify important issues, but that this set ofthree tasks merely scratches the surface. What more can be said aboutthese leaders who facilitate emergent change?Harrison Owen (1997), pioneer of open space technology, andpassionate believer in self-organization, says that the job of leaders isabout ‘liberating the human spirit to achieve its potential’. He points outthat the illusion of control and organization is where many leaders wastea lot of time and energy.It seems that leaders need to look beyond the confines of structure andorganization if they are to truly facilitate emergence. Wheatley (1999)quotes a rather lovely verse that captures the struggle many experiencewhen we try to grasp the realities of a complex world:She who wants to have right without wrong,Order without disorder,Does not understand the principlesOf heaven and earth.She does not know how things hang together.Chang Tzu, fourth century B.C.327