As a self-identified change agent, it sometimes goes without examination that change is always for the better. I've had this mental model interrupted here on the first day of STIA 2014. Change and transformation, where I like to live and work, exist in relationship with consistency and stability. Together they form a polarity, one of the emerging themes of the conference thus far and an idea that has helped move me forward in my thinking from a place I normally get stuck.
Maybe you are like me. As someone who thinks in systems, I tend to think that polarities exist on a continuum. It's up to systems, I've thought, to identify their "sweet spot" along that continuum--like Goldilocks, looking for the porridge that's "just right." But polarity thinking has changed this for me. Our lives, and hence our organizations, are comprised of systems that are living--continually attending and adapting to change, both in and out. Thinking that there is one "right state" in a system (a sweet spot between agility and efficiency, for example) assumes that a system is inert.
The implication of this personal change in thinking is that it brings my model of organizational change more fully into alignment with what I observe in nature. No matter how well-versed we may be in systems, the dominant cultural model of organizations as machines is still embedded in our thinking. Paying attention to polarity has helped me take a step towards a more comprehensive mental map of how systems live. How might I pay attention to polarities, see systems as emerging possibilities rather than fixtures, and make an impact in their creative future?
