Leadership in Chaordic Organizations [PDF]

Supplying a clear vision of how to build high-performance teams, Leadership in Chaordic Organizations presents methods for improving operations through the application of complex systems engineering principles and psychological counseling techniques. Ideal for systems engineers, organizational managers, coaches, and psychologists, it addresses the fundamental issue of the human condition in systems development.

The book considers the dynamic variables inherent in the human condition and how they impact group dynamics. Helping you to demystify complex system behaviors, it details an approach to leadership that integrates elements of neurobiology, systems engineering, complexity science, philosophy, and evolutionary and social psychology. It defines complexity and its impact on the organization and also explains how conflict can actually be constructive in group settings. Sharing helpful tips on how to build trust in today’s environment, the book also:

* Describes how the human condition affects group dynamics
* Lays out current problems and outlines workable solutions
* Shares a new vision of high-performance teams
* Illuminates theory with applications

Illustrating what teams and collaborative groups look like in a decentralized environment, the text introduces a highly effective group communications process invented by Richard Knowles—describing its use in designing 3D Immersive Learning Environments that enable complex emergence in dynamic interactive simulations. It also discusses complex human systems (Wicked Problems) and the potential of multi-user virtual environments to provide the transformative vision needed to fully engage all employees in your drive to make your organization more effective, efficient, and sustainable.

For this book, Beverly Gay McCarter, and Brian E. White have gathered, organized, and interpreted an immense amount of information. They bring together the thinking from chaos and complexity theory, psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and neuroscience, helping readers better understand the nature and challenges of leadership...
--Richard N. Knowles, Principal and Organizational Anthropologist, Richard N. Knowles & Associates, Inc., Youngstown, New York

Beverly Gay McCarter is an award-winning architect of immersive virtual environments whose company, Human Mosaic Systems, is located in Cary, North Carolina (Research Triangle Park). She received her MS degree in counseling psychology and human systems from Florida State University and her MFA in studio art from the Memphis College of Art. She is also certified in the areas of facilitating self-organizing systems for complex environments (the Center for Self-Organizing Leadership) and the design and architecture of virtual worlds (University of Washington).

Brian E. White received PhD and MS degrees in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin and SM and SB degrees in electrical engineering from MIT. He served in the U.S. Air Force and for eight years was at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Dr. White was a principal engineering manager at Signatron, Inc., for five years. In his twenty-eight years at the MITRE Corporation, he held a variety of senior professional staff and project/resource management positions. He was director of MITRE’s Systems Engineering Process Office from 2003 to 2009. White left MITRE in July 2010 to establish a consulting service, CAU←SES ("Complexity Are Us" ← Systems Engineering Strategies).