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Architecture & Engineering


Clive Shearer
Management
by Design
By Clive Shearer
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August 10, 2005

Management by Design: Chaotic workplaces can look functional

  • Those who trigger chaos through action or inaction are often unaware of their negative influence. But their managers should take action.
    • By CLIVE SHEARER
    Special to the Journal

    When inconsistency and unpredictability marry, the offspring is chaos. Nothing operates at 100 percent when chaos is present. One can spend countless hours devising and perfecting organizational systems. However, a perfectly designed system offers no assurance of stability. The uncertainty factor, and the potential fatal flaw, is the human element.

    A football game looks ordered and structured the moment before a play commences. The players line up in precise formation. At the moment that the ball is moved, you have a trigger event and the opportunities for instability begin.


     
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