Organizing retrospective 12

This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. This is a retrospective of what has happened during the week. The purpose is to reflect on the work itself. Here is my previous retrospective. Here is my next retrospective.

What has happened? What needs to be done?
I finished reading Future Fit by Giles Hutchins this week. It’s a well researched book, in which I found several new references. I added the following books to my reading list: Panarchy by Lance Gunderson, Poiesis by Stephen K. Levine, Flourishing Enterprise by Chris Laszlo, and Future Sense by Malcolm Parlett. The over-arching vision of a firm of the future is to be in service of life. I fully agree with Giles Hutchins that future fit businesses require a “fundamentally different logic” drawing on the deep wisdom of life.¹ This is very much related to my ongoing inquiry into deeper generative orders for organizing.

I also think that Christopher Alexander’s notion of living structures is related to my interest in living organizations. Interestingly, Alexander discovered that his architectural patterns couldn’t generate profound living structures. Similarly, I believe organizational patterns cannot generate living organizations. Patterns are explicate orders. I think Giles Hutchins’ “fundamentally different logic” address more subtle implicate orders.

• I will return to Giles Hutchins’ book in the future, and I will certainly take the time to write a book review.
• I will also return to Christopher Alexander in the coming weeks.
  

I have also read Organize for Complexity by Niels Pflaeging during the week. It’s a small book which is very easy to read. The book has wonderful illustrations. Here is my book review.

What was good? What can be improved?
I have got feedback offline, which is good.

• However, I prefer feedback online if possible.
  

Notes:
¹ Giles Hutchins, Future Fit (2016), p. 29.

Related posts:
Organizing in between and beyond posts