{"id":39543,"date":"2024-11-18T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39543"},"modified":"2024-11-17T14:05:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T22:05:32","slug":"embracing-the-chaos-how-change-fuels-growth-and-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/embracing-the-chaos-how-change-fuels-growth-and-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the Chaos: How Change Fuels Growth and Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf we believe that the universe is on a relentless road to death, we can\u2019t help but live in fear of change. In a downhill world, any change exhausts our store of valuable energy and leaves us empty, one step closer to death. Staying put or keeping our balance is a means of defense against the eroding forces of nature. We want nothing to change because only decline awaits us. <\/span>Any form of present stasis is preferable to the known future of deterioration. But in venerating equilibrium, we have blinded ourselves to the processes that foster life.\u201d [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Leadership and the New Science<\/span><\/i>, author Margaret J. Wheatley challenges us to let go of outdated leadership models and to find order in what may appear as chaos. She proposes that leadership in today\u2019s world means embracing change, engaging openly with our environments, and allowing ourselves to adapt. She challenges traditional leadership and organizational management approaches by applying principles from quantum physics, chaos theory, and complexity science. Wheatley argues that organizations should embrace uncertainty and interconnectedness, viewing change as an opportunity for growth rather than a threat. From my experiences, change has offered many personal and relational growth opportunities. When I have led teams of individuals in ministry, school, or family changes, while the chaos of change seems difficult, I see how going through change with others develops deeper connectedness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Wheatley shows us, adapting to change is not merely a way to survive; it is a pathway to growth, resilience, and the emergence of new possibilities. The book emphasizes the need for leaders to move away from mechanistic models and rigid structures and instead foster environments of collaboration, adaptability, and relational intelligence. She emphasizes the value of collaboration and interconnectedness. Likewise, in her book <\/span>Finding Our Way:\u00a0 Leadership for an Uncertain Time<\/span><\/i>, she states, \u201cThe world has been chunked into pieces rather than recognized for its webby nature. Think of how many lines and boundaries exist:\u00a0 org charts, job descriptions, town boundaries, nation-states, and ethnic identities. All these neat lines obscure the natural messiness of this interconnected world.\u201d [2] \u00a0 This stopped me in my tracks, thinking of all the lines and boundaries that seem to divide us rather than bring us together in many structures and systems involving people. Sadly, some of this natural messiness is probably why those lines and boundaries were created. As I plan for district professional development sessions and team meetings in recent years, a switch in the structure of our times together has incorporated working norms, agendas, and land acknowledgments to encourage safe structures for interaction and collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I read Wheatley\u2019s writings to leaders about change, learning, and collaboration, I thought about past leaders and innovators and the many modern conveniences that we all use from time to time. . . lightbulbs (okay, not so modern), cell phones, cars, and microwaves, just to name a few. I thought about my reactions to change. I most often find purposeful change to be an adventure, but there are times when the change involves giving up something that induces discomfort, or I don\u2019t understand the ultimate purpose of the change. These changes are not met with the same feeling of adventure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a lover of history. From history, I have learned much about the lives of people who have gone before me and paved the way for change, especially innovators like Henry Ford.<\/span><\/p>\n

I live near Henry Ford\u2019s first automobile plant in Detroit, Michigan. On several occasions, I have visited The Henry Ford Museum. During one visit, I even drove a Model T Ford. It was a lot of fun, but it didn\u2019t go as fast as I wanted to make it go. Our family enjoys walking around Greenfield Village, which is located right next to the Ford Test Track and Henry Ford Museum. As I walk the village, the history engages my imagination. The village inhabitants are working the land with their hands, spinning wool, building barns together and preparing food harvested from their own fields. I picture a simpler way of life without modern conveniences. Maybe that sounds like contrary thinking . .\u00a0 to like change but also living like the Amish. This is coming from a worn-out doctoral student who is close to the finish line, where living in a cute treehouse in the woods for a while sounds like a dream.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This brings me all back to change. . . Imagine if Henry Ford had never embraced the uncertainty of change. What if he hadn\u2019t led teams of scientists and engineers in learning together and exploring together? What if Ford and other leaders never embraced the uncertainty of change? What if I. . .<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Margaret J. Wheatley. <\/span>Leadership and the New Science\u202f: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World<\/span><\/i>. (San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006), <\/span>https:\/\/research-ebsco-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/linkprocessor\/plink?id=8a31981b-727b-3e59-8824-53c2d7868cf6<\/span><\/a>, 83.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Margaret J. Wheatley. <\/span>Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time<\/span><\/i>. (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005), <\/span>https:\/\/research-ebsco-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/linkprocessor\/plink?id=ca2d09f9-b8a1-35e4-879b-ebaaeee703de<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf we believe that the universe is on a relentless road to death, we can\u2019t help but live in fear of change. In a downhill world, any change exhausts our store of valuable energy and leaves us empty, one step closer to death. Staying put or keeping our balance is a means of defense against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,345],"class_list":["post-39543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-wheatley","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39544,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39543\/revisions\/39544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}