Dissipative Structures
I have been re-reading Margaret Wheatley’s book – Leadership and the New Science which has affirmed my thinking in the last post about authentic community. Dissipative structures is a phrased used on page 20 of the book. It was coined by Prigogine to describe the new structures that arise out of an experience of loss (dissipation). He suggests that new structures (order) can develop after experiencing loss of some nature. Wheatley writes, ‘..dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order, and that growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance.’
This fits well with the idea of death and resurrection – new life from out of the old. In dissipative structures anything that disturbs the system plays a crucial role in helping it self-organise into a new form of order. (page 21)Thus things that act as a catalyst for that loss should be encouraged rather than avoided, for it is out of a profound sense of loss that the new can emerge.
Organisations that are locked into linear thinking have equated order with control. Wheatley suggests this leads to a hierarchical model of leadership. Wheatley encourages the search for order not control. She says that when this happens order will be found in unexpected places.
The Chippenham circuit is experience loss in the shape of all three ministers leaving in August 2008 – the superintendent minister bring forward her departure by 2 years. Let’s pray that the experience is a catalyst for loss and helps to shape new order.
This fits well with the idea of death and resurrection – new life from out of the old. In dissipative structures anything that disturbs the system plays a crucial role in helping it self-organise into a new form of order. (page 21)Thus things that act as a catalyst for that loss should be encouraged rather than avoided, for it is out of a profound sense of loss that the new can emerge.
Organisations that are locked into linear thinking have equated order with control. Wheatley suggests this leads to a hierarchical model of leadership. Wheatley encourages the search for order not control. She says that when this happens order will be found in unexpected places.
The Chippenham circuit is experience loss in the shape of all three ministers leaving in August 2008 – the superintendent minister bring forward her departure by 2 years. Let’s pray that the experience is a catalyst for loss and helps to shape new order.
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