Walking the Tightrope

June 30, 2010 in Growing · Written by Tara Joyce · Follow Me on Twitter

Tightrope Elastic Mind

[tweetmeme] Ever feel like you’re walking a tightrope? That’s because you are. We all are.

All complex adaptive systems (that’s you!) walk a tightrope between too much structure and too little.

Too much structure…

and chaos! Organic systems become rigid and unresponsive to their environment and they eventually die.

To little structure…

and chaos! Organic systems become overly sensitive to environmental disturbances. They can’t maintain their organization and eventually disintegrate.

Living at the edge of chaos

This is where life and creativity exist. They can’t be limited by too much structure or failed to let unfold in the moment through too much planning.

It’s a process of listening to, and trusting in, the ideas within us; then revealing those ideas through our action.

Your business is no different

Contrary to traditional belief and our anxious minds, too much structure is not of benefit to your business. Nor is following someone else’s idea of structure. What is of benefit is listening to yourself, and paying attention to your environment.

What unfolds for your business will not be preordained by ‘vision’ or ’strategy’, but by the choices you make and their long-term consequences. The future is yours to create in this present moment.

Stay present to what is evolving and stay aligned with your intention.

Walk the tightrope of chaos by making choices based upon the life and world you want to be.

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  • russell

    Tara, – a beautiful handling of a most important concept and tool.
    Complex adaptive systems are all around us. Most things we take for granted are complex adaptive systems, and the agents in every system exist and behave in total ignorance of the concept but that does not impede their contribution to the system. Complex Adaptive Systems are a model for thinking about the world around us not a model for predicting what will happen. I have found that in nearly all situations I can view what is happening in Complex Adaptive Systems terms and that this opens up a variety of new options which give me more choice and more freedom. Cheers !

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Mike,

    You are my 'Systems Thinking' guru and I always appreciate the
    contributions and ideas of your amazing mind. Thanks for sharing your
    perspective.

  • Michael Yanakiev

    Hi Tara ! – What a nice handling of most important concepts and tools ! Just a little add on from me :
    Complex adaptive systems are all around us. Most things we take for granted are complex adaptive systems, and the agents in every system exist and behave in total ignorance of the concept but that does not impede their contribution to the system. Complex Adaptive Systems are a model for thinking about the world around us not a model for predicting what will happen. I have found that in nearly all situations I can view what is happening in Complex Adaptive Systems terms and that this opens up a variety of new options which give me more choice and more freedom. Cheers !

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Mike,

    You are my 'Systems Thinking' guru and I always appreciate the
    contributions and ideas of your amazing mind. Thanks for sharing your
    perspective.

  • susantblake

    Hi Tara – thanks for a great post. So great, in fact, that I had to write about it. http://susantblake.com/?p=260. Thanks for the inspiration! – Susan

  • http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/ Tara Joyce

    Great to meet you, Susan. I left a message over on your site. What
    provoking questions you posed in you article. Thank you for sharing it
    with me.