Complexity theory suggests that organisations and markets and ecologies and communities are:
Organic:
They have more in common with ecosystems, with evolving organisms than with machines; they are not in general predictable or controllable.
Self-organising and comprised of temporary patterns of relationships:
They often display patterns of relationships (such as ways of working in organisations or buying patterns in markets) which can be relatively stable but still display some variation and fluctuation and may indeed evolve, eventually, into new patterns.
Contingent on history and context:
The future depends on the detail of what happens, does not smoothly follow from the past.
Affected by multiple causes:
In general there are no simple cause-and-effect chains; outcomes are influenced by several factors acting together, together with the effects of chance, history and the wider environment.
Co-evolutionary:
Organisations are shaped by their environments and vice versa; there is interaction and reflexive change between scales, between actors.
Episodic, non-linear change:
Sometimes current patterns are resilient but flexible, sometimes locked-in and rigid, sometimes change can be fast and radical.
Emergent:
Change can lead to the emergence of features qualitatively different from the past.
Jean Boulton, Claremont Management Consultants Ltd (Boulton)
Complexity theory looks at the world in ways which break with simple cause-and-effect models, linear predictability, and a dissection approach to understanding phenomena, replacing them with organic, non-linear and holistic approaches in which relations within interconnected networks are the order of the day. (M. Wheatley)
This forms the basis of a post-modern approach to change and to mission that lies at the heart of my consultancy model.
4. An approach to church and circuit development that is essentially non-linear and conversational
The kind of change that is needed in churches is usually not primarily about changing what we do, setting targets, developing plans, but about changing minds and hearts; changing culture. It is about changing the view of mission from being an added extra or that which we pay others to do increasingly towards being that which we do. Even more, it is about changing our thinking from just focusing on what we do to also thinking about what we are.
I therefore use, as the basis of my consultancy, not the Newtonian models of Lovell et al. but a model that is based around notions of health and well-being, and built on conversation and listening rather than around notions of growth and planning. This model takes seriously not only the objective ‘facts’ but also the very real feelings that people have about their church and about mission.
Taking account of recent insights in the new sciences and social sciences, I have begun to realise more and more fully the value of conversations rather than plans, of thinking in terms of developing Healthy Churches and Circuits rather than growing and target led Churches and Circuits.
My aim in consultancy is to unearth a passion to be more effective rather than to set targets and goals, which ultimately lead to a sense of failure and demoralisation.
Does it work?