LANGUAGE OF COMPLEXITY

Scientists working in the area of complexity have developed a "language of complexity" which they use to discuss ideas, expand theories, and carry out research. Management also has its own language, ways of speaking, and ways of making sense of the world. There is a tremendous gap between the new "language of complexity" and the accepted language of business. Bridging this gap in language is what will allow us to bring new ideas such as complex adaptive systems and organizational intelligence into our corporations for consideration.

Today's greatest challenge for those in leadership roles in our companies is to provide a language of meaning for our organizations. This does not imply that we invent meaning but rather, that we provide language and processes of dialogue by which existing meaning can be discovered and new meaning can be generated on a continual basis. In order to provide that, we must first understand the social construction of reality through language and next recognise that both individually and organizationally we are unaware of the language with which we constitute ourselves. Because we are unaware of it, we are unable to influence it and in turn unable to significantly influence our future.

It is critical that we develop certain linguistic capacities if we intend to dramatically influence the future of our organizations. One capacity we must develop is the ability to question our existing language as a way of discovering the limits created by our language. Another is the ability to generate a language that creates the emergence of innovation, learning, and creativity. And we must develop the ability to engage in dialogue that generates ideas or distinctions that did not exist before the dialogue. Developing our mutual ability to question the unquestionable and think the unthinkable, provides us with the capacities necessary to generate a future that is closely aligned with our intentions.

Everyone has the ability to question. The challenge is being able to ask good questions. Questions that demand answers are not good questions. Questions that demand thinking, raise more questions, or challenge the previously unchallenged are the questions that make a difference.

What confronts us first as we endeavor to develop our capacity to ask generative questions is that the already in-use language is designed to immerse us in a socially constructed reality that itself is not open to question. We are socialised into a language that excludes much from our thinking by implicitly -- outside of our awareness -- telling us what is so and must be so. The generative questions, that we are attempting to learn to formulate, are ones that reveal what we have been unaware of, what has been unquestionable, or what has been taken for granted. These kinds of questions are greatly rewarded with new distinctions and the ability to create and integrate.

Linus Pauling (awarded two Nobel prizes) "The secret to successful research is simply asking the right questions."