Idris has an insightful post about the continual battle that occurs between order and chaos:
- Success and Failure: In order for people to succeed, you must first allow them to fail so they fail small and quickly and succeed big.
- Efficiency and Effectiveness: The customer is best served when the organization is efficient; the organization is effective when it puts the customer first.
- Control and Freedom: People need controls to be free. Freedom can only be bought with restraints. Empowering people without losing control and ensure efforts are aligned.
- Change and Stability: To change safely, we need a stable base. To find stability, we need to change ourselves often. Or as Alfred Whitehead put it: "The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
The paradox is that if change is to be successful it requires revolutionary not evolution thinking. Too often entrepreneurs lull themselves into believing that small incremental tweaks are sufficient to keep ahead of the curve. The process enables a false sense of security as they sail their fragile vessels headlong into uncertainty.
