Epiphanies

Convection

5/11/2014

A Reflection on Community Convection

In this video, a small pot contains some food, water, and spices.

As the heat on the stove reaches the bottom of the pot, the pot gets hotter. The food and liquid in the pot feel the heat, and begin to get agitated. The heat-energized molecules jump around, seemingly at random.

But within the boundaries of their environment- the pot and the air above - natural patterns spontaneously organize.

If the pot was clear, we would see the circular flow all around the pot, as the hotter contents rise away from the heat of the bottom, reach the surface where they are cooled a bit by the air above, get heavier, and sink down towards the bottom again.

But even as the cycles of convection continue, some parts of the food are able stay up on top, light enough to float on the bubbling, boiling surface.

The bits of colored spices cluster together in the center of the simmering surface. They are comparatively stable at the center but turbulent at their outer edges. New bits are being pushed up from below, and some bits are pushed away at the surface edges.

This is a simple physical system with what are complex emergent dynamics.

Now, instead of seeing this as food in a simmering pot, imagine this as the ecosystem of your organization or community

Who is with us "in the pot?"
What boundaries and limits do we face every day?
What pressures do we face, that push us in different directions?
When we reach the top, how hard is it to stay there
What supports us, and what lets us down?

~ Bruce Waltuck, President, Freethinc...For A Change & Director, I-Open

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1 Comment

Betsey link

4/7/2015 05:51:33 am

From Bruce Waltuck: This post points to several critical factors in understanding the dynamics of change and change leadership:

1) There is always a "container" even in dynamic human systems. Resources, capacities, knowledge, and understanding are always limited. We can not know or do everything and anything.

2) Perspective matters- sometimes, a lot. If we are one of the many human "bubbles" in the system, we often do not see, or understand, the bigger picture- the patterns of behavior emerging in the system in response to the forces and constraints acting on it. Even though there is often a "fractal" structure at work in organizations as in nature (a type of geometry in which there is "self-similarity at varying scales" - zooming in or out, things look a lot alike), it is critical to note that SIMILAR TO isn't SAME AS. The well-known Harvard teacher of leadership, Ron Heifetz, and his colleague Marty Linsky, talk about "getting off the dance floor" and getting a view from the "balcony."

3) We are simultaneously both acting IN the system, and at times, ON the system. (Too) Many consultants talk and act as if the change leader (literally referred to at times as the "lever puller") was separate and apart from the system they are acting on. Nope. Again, referring to Heifetz and Linsky, in this boiling-pot system, SOMEONE has some measure control over the level and timing of the heat. In real human systems, we do not often have the degree of knowledge and control that we might want (or, even worse presume) that we have. But, to the extent that we can impact the heat/pressure/energy flowing into the system, it is often helpful to make adjustments. A chef, like a wise leader, knows when the sight, sound, and behavior of the food they are cooking (or people they are working with), need to be quickly taken off the burner, to avoid overheating.

"The Watched Pot" - from "Introduction to Integrated Improvement" by Bruce Waltuck."

Convection

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