From planning to scanning – the implications of chaos and complexity theory for organisation development

The sciences of chaos and complexity are providing many interesting insights into natural systems, particularly around the possibility of prediction in chaotic systems and the emergence of self-organised behaviour in complex ones. As the business environment becomes more connected (and hence complex) and exhibits many chaotic features this points to new metaphors for the organisation. This paper explores the current situation whilst a second paper (to follow) presents a radical cocktail of new behaviours for the successful company of tomorrow.