Searching for Order in an Orderly World

This essay explores the difference between order and control, and argues for a new appreciation of the inherent sources of order found in the natural universe. Newer scientific understandings of how natural systems maintain order are contrasted with traditional organizational methods of maintaining order through exerting control. The author suggests that rigidly controlled organizations originate from assumptions based on 17th-century Newtonian images of a machine universe. The laws of entropy, of natural decay and death, apply to machines; resisting entropy requires constant effort and careful controls. But as 20th-century scientists have explored open, dynamic systems, they have observed how order is maintained with very few controls and how order emerges as partners with change. New science concepts from several disciplines are introduced: autopoiesis, quantum physics, self-organizing systems, and chaos theory. These sciences demonstrate a fundamentally new understanding, in which order is identified in processes that only temporarily manifest in structures. As we learn more about these natural processes, we will be able to create organizations that move more gracefully in a constantly changing environment.