Organisations like order: we illustrate them in the horizontal and vertical, column by column, row by row.
But these things are abstractions: vital to give us a sense of structure and purpose, but not ‘true’ in the sense that a flower or a bee is ‘true’.
In Social Leadership we take the view that Organisations are both Structural and Social: the Structural may be represented in clear and tidy ways, but the Social is inherently multi-dimensional and unstructured - just imagine what your map of trust looks like, or your landscape of communities.
Our illustrations of structure, and our imagination of the social, are both ‘true’ in a local sense, but the real trick is to recognise the dynamic nature of the thing we are observing.
Organisations are collectives and hence exhibit traits that are global, local, and individual. And they may not entirely be reconciled.
Use your sixty seconds today to focus your lens to the widest setting: visualise the entirety of your Structural and Social Organisation.
What did it look like? Was it calm or chaotic? What colour was it? Was it in motion or still? And where were you within it - or were you observing it?
Is this useful, is it true? Well, it’s as true as the charts. It’s a reflective exercise to consider ‘what’s the Organisation truly is, which is the foundation of understanding where, and how, we lead within, or upon it.
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