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Parenting As A Living System (cont.) Much work went into understanding how living systems maintained “their highly organized steady states,” and several researchers such as Edward Lorenz observed that highly complex systems have periods of chaos, adding another level of understanding which became known as “chaos theory.” (see Gleick’s Chaos Theory) Out of chaos, though, living things do “self-organize.” This is a special characteristic of living things. Eric Jantsch describes this effect in his seminal book The Self-Organizing Universe: “Autopoiesis refers to the characteristics of living systems to continuously renew themselves and to regulate this process in such a way that the integrity of their structure is maintained.” (Jantsch, p. 7) He further explains: “Whereas a machine is geared to the output of a specific product, a biological cell is primarily concerned with renewing itself. Upgrading (anabolic) and downgrading (catabolic) processes run simultaneously. Not only the evolution of a system, but also its existence in a specific structure becomes dissolved into processes. In the domain of the living, there is little that is solid and rigid. An autopoietic structure results from the interaction of many processes.” (Jantsch, p. 7) Living processes, complex and multi-dimensional, are continually in a dynamic, co-constructive dance with each other. The natural world of which we humans are intricately a part of is an ongoing continuum of endless complexity of variations, repetitions, and patterns. Why is this important to professionals working with moms and dads? Living systems theory provides a new framework, along with a new language of dynamism that has spread throughout many disciplines. For instance, in the fields of business and organizational development, Peter Senge pioneered many key concepts in his seminal book, The Fifth Discipline. David Cooperrider and colleagues framed Appreciative Inquiry to account for the interaction of generative processes toward specific outcomes. Robert Quinn’s trilogy of books on transformative change (see below) utilizes a living systems approach with a remarkable synthesis of core concepts related to practical methods of solution finding. In her groundbreaking book, Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley examines quantum physics, self-organizing living systems, and chaos theory, showing how to use key concepts from these thought-sets to catalyze significant changes in organizations. She states in the introduction of Leadership and the New Science, “I believe that our greatest hope for moving past the ineffective change process that plague us is to ally ourselves with life. If we can understand how life changes, we will dance more gracefully in this dynamic universe.” (Wheatley, p. xi)
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