A633.5.3.RB_DellElceCamila

A633.5.3.RB – Reflections on Chaos

            After watching the short clip on chaos and leadership, I found several things were brought to my attention. I have never experienced or watched this exercise before, thus leading my brain to play the guessing game about the final outcome. For instance, throughout the short clip I was trying to predict what was going to happen. I thought surely there would be chaos, that people would not be able to accurately split the difference between their two points without messing someone else’s distance; therefore, it would almost become an endless chaotic loop. Not only did I think that the entire exercise was going to be completely unorganized, I also envisioned the group physically running into each other by running to their places.

            However, my prediction was wrong. After, 2 or 3 seconds of predicting the outcome, the group began to move slowly and controlled. They knew whom they had picked and no one else did, and as time went on they moved less and less until they all found their spot in under a minute. Assuming that they all ended up half way between their two references, they accomplished this effectively and rather quickly. The individuals became a system working together towards a final state seemingly disorganized, but did so in a very rhythmic manner. They were like gears turning and moving until they came to an organized stop.

            This exercise is a prime example of the chaos theory in many ways. Obolensky (2010) stated that chaos theory “shows how chaos has an underlying order and patterns which can be used to good effect.” He also quotes the book Nature’s Numbers in saying that “to an untrained eye it looks pretty much random.” In relation to the exercise, there was an underlying order although they did not move in expected paths, each person had a goal and it depended on all of the other individuals and that is what created their path. To the audience these paths looked completely random and unorganized. At times it even looked as if people were moving aimlessly and then suddenly stopped in place. This explains step for step the definition of the chaos theory because many factors internal and external affected the underlying patterns that occurred in the exercise. These patterns have a bit of order and purpose; however, to an outsider chaos is scary.

            Patterns and purpose are sometimes hard to see and understand, which lead to implications in organizational strategy. It is nearly impossible to predict chaos before or during it, and that makes strategizing difficult. In its nature, strategy is based on a future state and chaos theory is there to let organizations know not to get too far ahead because one will not always know or understand what could potentially happen. 

References

Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership. (2^nd Edition). London, UK: Gower/Ashgate.