{"id":24704,"date":"2019-11-03T12:45:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T20:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24704"},"modified":"2019-11-03T13:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T21:10:46","slug":"viva-el-sombrero-azul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/viva-el-sombrero-azul\/","title":{"rendered":"Viva el Sombrero Azul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/strong> Margaret Wheatley<\/p>\n

Over the last few years I have been intrigued by the thought-provoking attitude of Margaret Wheatley, best-selling author and world-renowned leader of leaders. I have read a few of her books and listened closely to her \u2018unshakeable conviction that leaders (for the way forward and on behalf of the human spirit) must learn how to evoke inherent generosity, creativity and need for community.\u2019 [1]. Critical Theory and Margaret Wheatley? How does someone think and what are the roots to their thinking? How have they been inspired? This week I would like to be so bold as to ever-so briefly analyze aspects of Margaret Wheatley\u2019s frame of thinking. As a disclaimer, I may be \u2018off by a long-shot\u2019 with this. Still, I will humbly allow curiosity to lead the way with an openness and understanding to the possibility of being \u2018quite\u2019 wrong.<\/p>\n

First Body:<\/strong> Structuralism<\/p>\n

Can Structuralism be a starting point for an individual\u2019s frame of inspired expression? Structuralism is a building or perhaps a floor closer to the ground and underlying foundations on that building of thought. It is, as illustrated by Sin and Van Loon, \u2018a series of interlocking sign-systems to which human beings respond in largely predictable ways.\u2019 [2] Postmodernism and poststructuralism point follow from this somewhat ambiguous point with Margaret Wheatley\u2019s fine-tuning of perspectives on subjects (in particular leadership and organizational behaviour) in the sciences. Complexity and Chaos Theories flow out from her postmodern \u201crelativism\u201d and inter-lacing is a Theory of Change with hope for a broadening perspective and diversifying, progressive grasp on subjects (aforementioned).<\/p>\n

Second Body:<\/strong> Complexity and Chaos Theory<\/p>\n

The Natural Sciences, both on the micro and macroscopic levels, influence Margaret Wheatley\u2019s ideas. This is characteristic of Complexity Theory and Complex Adaptive Systems, the centering on naturally occurring arrangements for inspiration and in the pursuit of models that may contribute to progressive leadership and organizational dynamics and processing. Chaos Theory challenges systems for its \u2018simultaneous presence of randomness and determinism\u2019 [2]. Margaret Wheatley affirms in her observations the sensitive, vulnerable integrity of individuals and organisations and the impossibility of determining outcomes with precision. Chaos Theory, as she eloquently portrays, relieves the seeming necessity to control outcomes in the difficulty to adequately (or even, reasonably) predict behavior of individuals or groups of individuals in response to change (or, what is known) in systems of organization. Margaret Wheatley approaches organizations as living systems that \u2018have the capacity to self-organize, to sustain themselves and move toward greater complexity and order as needed.\u2019 [4] The inhibiting factor in this movement is the leader who seeks to control the life and natural flow of the organization. Therefore, for the optimal expression of the organization, the best leader is the one who is clearly informed on the genetics of the organism and can identify the chemistry and collaboration needed not only for the survival of the system but also for its proliferation.<\/p>\n

Third Body:<\/strong> Something from Margaret<\/p>\n

Everywhere around us and within us we experience complexity and diversity.<\/p>\n

Everywhere around us and within us we experience change, death, and renewal; order and chaos; growth and decay that becomes new life.<\/p>\n

Everywhere around us and within us we see pattern upon pattern, ever-deepening levels of complexity and variety.<\/p>\n

Why do we resist the vision or blind ourselves to the beauty or fail to embrace the learnings?\u201d [3]<\/p>\n

Concluding Story:<\/strong>\u00a0of Thought and Struggle<\/p>\n

This afternoon, after a lunch in a beautiful dining room overlooking a pristine lake at Church Camp, I had a nice conversation with a new friend from El Salvador on liberation from repression. He was a Commander for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992). My new friend has killed people and people have sought his life; he showed me a gunshot wound that blew his stomach out. In 1988, he moved to Canada with his family. They were refugees hoping for equal opportunity and fair justice with a new beginning in a different political and socio-economical context, Canada.<\/p>\n

Canada is a nice place. We are known for being a nice people. My El Salvadoran friend is happy to be here for the sake of being happy, for his family. Underlying this happiness is some resentment. He sees the individualism in Canada that upsets community and family values. He has been treated unfairly. The problem of poverty has affected him, and he questions the resolve of a rich nation for allowing a solvable struggle to perpetuate. Corruption and oppression do not have borders, they just look and sound different in different places. There is confusion. \u201cDo not the resources that are in the land of a country belong to the people of the country?\u201d, he wonders. We wonder together along the conversation of this question and others like it. How do the people of a country allow corrupt decision-making and action to continue as if on behalf of the people? My friend comments on the Salvadoran Civil War and uprising. He reflects on his studies in university many years ago and the inspiration of a Chilean Marxist-Communist Marta Hernecker. We speak and smile on the tenants of Extreme Leftism. Then, with a twinkle in our eyes, thankfulness for the good things and the blessings of our children, we pray together.<\/p>\n

And, I\u2019m left <\/em>wondering, \u2018What Would Jesus Think?\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Wheatley, Margaret. https:\/\/margaretwheatley.com\/bio\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] Sim, Stuart and Van Loon, Borin. (2001). Introducing Critical Theory<\/em>. McPherson Printing Group, Victoria.<\/p>\n

[3] Wheatley, Margaret. Chaos and Comlexity: What Can Science Teach? https:\/\/www.margaretwheatley.com\/articles\/Wheatley-Chaos-and-Complexity.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

[4] Wheatley, Margaret. (1996, July\/August). The Irresistible Future of Organizing. https:\/\/www.margaretwheatley.com\/articles\/irresistiblefuture.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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