Do we really want balance in life?
“Equilibrium is neither the goal nor the fate of living systems, simply because as open systems they are partners with their environment. The study of these systems, begun with Prigogine’s prize-winning work (1980), has shown that open systems have the possibility of continuously importing free energy from the environment and of exporting entropy. They don’t sit quietly by as their energy dissipates. They don’t seek equilibrium. Quite the opposite. To stay viable, open systems maintain a state of non-equilibrium, keeping the system off balance so that it can change and grow. They participate in an active exchange with their world, using what is there for their own renewal Every organism in nature, including us, behaves in this way.” (Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley, 1992, p78)
Wow.. This was probably written in 1991, published in 1992 and now 17 years later, we have so many examples of how this is playing out in our society. “Open Source” code, “social networking”, “transparency” if you look at these “open systems” you can see how the information that flows through these systems provides a steady stream of change, of continuous improvement.
It seems interesting to me that there has been so much talk about “finding balance”, and really what we should be doing is constantly finding the imbalance in life. It’s the change in life that makes us more and more vibrant, and provides greater opportunity. Maybe the idea is to ebb and flow from one area of focus to another so that we can constantly integrate newness into what we are doing and who we are.
Nick Milton at Knoco, Ltd. Based in the UK, has a blog entry on this topic (We only learn when we don’t know what to do) He provides a much more business oriented example of what it looks like to really keep disequilibrium in the system. And, to Nick’s point of creating a “knowledge seeking” culture, rather than just a “knowledge sharing culture”… I would suggest that for a company to stay agile in today’s marketplace, you need to ebb and flow between one and the other.
Since starting my own business (thank you EDS (HP)) I have exposed myself to more new information and am living in a constant state of disequilibrium… and the reality is, I feel more alive and energized than I ever did in the last few years of my corporate career. I am constantly moving from a knowledge seeking mode to a knowledge sharing mode.
What’s your thought? Find balance or imbalance in life?
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Comments
Great post, Lisa. I’ve been realizing that one of the things I enjoy most about being a consultant is the imbalance that it creates in my work life. It took me almost a decade to realize it, stop fighting it, and go with it. In the past year or so I’ve had similar feelings of empowerment and energy.
Thanks for your response Art! Anything goes in comments as far as I’m concerned. Interesting your view of balance in life. maybe a another word could have been status quo…
I couldn’t agree more. I had the exact same thought when I read the article, and was going to reply when I read your post. Anything I would say would be redundant.
I understand the point you are making in the article, and generally agree with the premise that people and organizations need to continuously be challenged, stretched, and even surprised in order to learn and grow. What I don’t get is the title. I think it is a stretch linking wanting balance in life with the non-equilibrium discussion. In my opinion balance in life is not the same as equilibrium in life. Balance for me is not being equal at all, rather it is having multiple interests in both work, play, and home life so that I am not concentrating all efforts in one segment of life. In my world balance and maintaining a state of non-equilibrium coexist quite well together. Perhaps it was just a play on words and I’m reading too much into it. Good article though, it got me thinking and worked up enough to comment. Kind of got me off balance and upset my equilibrium.