Replying to Jack Hirschfeld:
>I am a little disturbed that this healthiness is contrasted
>with orderliness and efficiency
I didn't intend to contrast noise versus order/efficiency. We are not
dealing with an either/or situation, but rather, finding an optimum
combination of noise and order.
Chris Langton with the Santa Fe Institute developed an interesting diagram
a few years back that identifies four regions of behavior for systems --
fixed, periodic, chaotic and complex. A phase transition occurs between
each of these regions.
What I find interesting is that the complex region (in simplified terms,
the region which is the most productive and effective for living systems)
lies between the periodic and the chaotic.
What we need to understand is that chaos (noise) is critical to the
long-term adaptivity of living systems, including our organizations. So is
more ordered behavior. To have an effective learning organization, we need
to actively develop organizational structures that provide both.
-- Regards, Peter von Stackelberg Applied Futures, Inc. PeterVS1@aol.com