Change and Challenge 199to be. The edge of chaos is that rare combination where free-
dom balances structure. Also, at the edge of chaos, an
organization is most effective at turning data into informa-
tion, and information into knowledge, because it has the
structure to collect the information and the internal con-
nections and creativity to put it together to generate
knowledge, value, insight and foresight.
Can a business reach this magical point on its own? Not
without a leader to take it there. A leader must create a cul-
ture that encourages risk taking, creativity and uniqueness
within a pattern of continuity and order, a culture that is not
maintained by rules, penalties and rigid boundaries, but by
values and vision, trust and commitment. There is no recipe
for getting to the edge; every company is different, needing
different degrees of freedom and order depending on what
it does and how it is structured. There are some broad guid-
ing principles, however.
The degree of communication within a company is im-
portant. How well do people communicate and connect?
When connections are too thin, then the organization is too
rigid, it cannot react quickly enough. Too many connec-
tions and it becomes chaotic – a change in one part
re-echoes throughout and disturbs the whole system, mak-
ing it impossible to work. It is like a precariously balanced
house of cards – tip one and they all fall over. Each part of
the business needs some autonomy. When parts of the or-
ganization are too enmeshed, each part must have some
freedom of action otherwise it will always be reacting to
changes in other departments. Some changes need to be
transmitted, but not all.
One way that organizations become too rigid is by trying
to cover all eventualities, to make procedures fail-safe. You
can never make a complex system fail-safe, it is impossible to
control everything and attempts to do so make for too many
rigid rules. It seems what can go wrong, will go wrong ...
eventually. Industrial disasters happen despite the most
elaborate safety precautions. Take a tip from nature. Your
body is not designed so that it can never go wrong; it is not