A633.5.3.RB
- Reflections on Chaos
Create a reflection blog on what this exercise meant to
you and how it impacts your understanding of chaos theory; include the
implications that this has on strategy.
It's
nice to reenact this exercise some 20yrs later after the first time I did it
back in High School. The results this time were actually a bit slower, even
when working with high speed/disciplined Soldiers. In-fact, we did the exercise
five separate times, and after the second time we conducted the experiment I
noticed a very distinct change. I initially gave the group the very same set of
rules as outlined in the original game, and the results were fairly similar to
what I've seen in several videos, and what I experienced back in High School.
The second time I decided to add an additional variable. Unknowingly, I made
the game much more complicated based on such a tiny variable. I told the group
that if they could beat their initial time, they would get the rest of the day
off. Little did they know that they were in-fact already going to get the day
of anyways, but that's not the point. Once I said go, my initial thoughts were
that they indeed would get the task done faster, but actually it took them
almost 3 times as much time to complete the task. Their movements were so
chaotic, people running into each other and falling down all over the place. It
was almost like watching the butterfly effect run its course right before my
very eyes, indeed comical but rather puzzling.
The
objectives I set were still clear, explicit, and individual as Obolensky (2014)
lays out during his explanation of the eight principles. So where did I go
wrong I questioned? I figured this action must have been a fluke so I had them
do it repeatedly. The results did get slightly better, but still nowhere close
to the original time. Lastly, I had them run the simulation one more time but
instructed them to move slowly and deliberately. Voila! The group was able to
complete the task, and even beat their original time. The fact that I overly
motivated the group and instructed them to move quickly in order to complete
the task was the external pressure that caused complexity to transition into
chaos.
Lastly,
I gave one of my of my soldiers the opportunity to lead the task in order to
make things less chaotic. Operations were very calculated, but the process was painstakingly
long. After just ten minutes, I had to call the exercise because I think it
would have taken an hour to get it accomplished. What I was witnessing was
in-fact a few different principles that embody chaos theory. Initially no one
person could possibly predict what was happening because everything looked so
radically chaotic. When you remove all the mass chaos, and evaluate processes
individually, behaviors start to emerge as being very simplistic. Are behaviors
deterministic in nature or by process alone? What external factors lead these
behaviors in the direction they take? Would the outcome be any different if I
completed this take on a Monday versus a Friday? I read an interesting opposition
thesis about Chaos Theory and it doesn't necessarily refute Chaos Theory but
identifies that the term is definitely being applied to broadly these days.
"Misunderstandings
about the nature of non-linear systems and the kinds of dynamics they generate, misunderstandings
concerning the nature of feedback, and about conditions for the emergence of chaos, which in some cases
is treated as a fact of life rather than a mode appearing under certain, usually rare, circumstances," Galbraith
(2002).
I'm certainly no expert on Chaos Theory, but can
relate to Galbraith's notion that we tend to find certainty out of
misconception when failing to apply the necessary critical thinking process in
order to understand the fundamental and powerful concept. Sometimes if you
utilize the wrong lens, or bend the correct lens just enough, you might find the
answer you were initially looking for which refutes the principal of critical
thinking altogether.
References
Galbraith, P. (2002). Organizational leadership and
chaos theory. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a87e/0642e0aa07733c9cb5351990462ca6979cac.pdf
Obolensky, M. N. (2014). Complex Adaptive
Leadership, 2nd Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved
from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781472447937/
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