The Chaordic Path is one of the models from the Art of Hosting that I have found most valuable. The model is portrayed in the drawing on the left. Following is a description from the Art of Hosting Workbook:
There is a path to take between Chaos and Order that leads us to the new – to collective learning and real-time innovation. Instead of relying on controlling every detail in our organisations or communities from the top down, many leaders today see the need to access the collective intelligence and collective wisdom of everyone.
We are beginning to understand and treat organizations and communities more like living systems than static machines. After all, the chaordic path is the story of our natural world – form arises out of nonlinear, complex, diverse systems. New levels of order become possible out of chaos.
This “chaordic confidence” – the capacity we need to stay in the dance of order and chaos – supports a generative emergence that allows the new, collective intelligence and wise action to occur. In this space of emergence, we leave our collective encounters with something that not one of us individually brought into the room. This requires us to stay in a transformative shift, though we may want to veer toward either chaos or order.
And in fact, we will move between chaos and order – this is the generative dance, an oscillation often seen in the natural world. A balance between two seeming polarities, which instead complement each other.
As we tread the line between chaos and order, individually and collectively, we move through confusion and conflict toward clarity. We are all called to walk this path without judgment – some will feel more comfortable with chaos, others with order. Both are needed as, together, we walk the edge between these two toward something wholly new.
On the far side of chaos is chamos – despair. On the far side of order is control. When we move toward either of these extremes, the result is apathy or rebellion – the very opposite of chaordic confidence, where the new cannot be born.
So, the question becomes – How much order do we need? How much chaos would be helpful here?
There is a path toward common ground, co-creation, and wise and strategic action. There is a “sweet spot” of emergence with tangible results.
We call it the Chaordic journey….a path less travelled.
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