Leading with NLP

202 Leading with NLP

state.^5 Imagine sand raining down into a pile until it is just
balanced and cannot grow any higher. It is just stable, the
balance seems precarious but no grains are slipping. Now let
another grain of sand hit the pile. We do not know what will
happen. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps a few grains will be dis-
turbed. Perhaps a chain reaction will be set off that leads to
the collapse of the pile into another heap that is just bal-
anced. You cannot predict exactly what will happen, but
most of the time there will be a small avalanche. Very occa-
sionally there will be a large one.
Any system poised at the edge of chaos will show changes
that follow a power law. I think this is an evocative and sug-
gestive metaphor for organizations and individuals. Look
back to the figure on page 174. A power law means that
there should be very many shallow and narrow changes in
sector 1 of the graph, fewer in sector 2 and 3 and very few
wide and deep changes in sector 4. This rate of change
makes the company not just adaptive but sustainable.
Leaders must be able to create change – both to change
the organization and to keep it in balance.

Too little procedure

Anarchy

Confusion

Risk taking

Too many connections

Free for all

Informal rather than

formal contacts

Gossip

Edge of chaos

Too much procedure

Too many rules

Rigidity

No risk

Too few connections

Command and control

Formal rather than

informal contacts

Isolation

Sustainability

Knowledge

Learning

Chaos Order