Living Vulnerably on a Warped Plane

We return to Waddington’s warped plane to get a concrete sense of this dynamic, ordering process. At the start, as the ball is rolling down the warped plane it encounters the first warp (a ridge with two adjacent valleys). At this point, it tends to oscillate. As noted above, bifurcation tends to be preceded by oscillations. At the point the ball ceases to oscillate and begins to move down one of the adjacent valleys, an irreversible decision has occurred. When the ball begins to move down one of the valleys, however, it usually doesn’t move directly down the center of the valley. Rather, because it entered the valley from an angle (having oscillated among several options before entering the valley), it rolls up the side of one of the valley’s ridges. The ball then corrects itself by rolling back across the floor of the valley and up the other ridge of the valley—while continuing to roll down the valley. In this setting, an organization makes orderly changes and operates in a self-correcting fashion. The organization is moving toward a specific goal (the bottom of the valley) and its leaders usually can rather clearly articulate the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are needed among the men and women who are working in the organization. This is an evolutionary process, whereas the initial movement into the valley is much more revolutionary in nature.

The ball or organization may not yet be done with the change process. At times, the ball may swing too far and actually roll up over the top of the ridge into the adjacent valley. Changes in the first valley have become too great —usually as a function of the speed of the ball’s movement (the faster the speed, the wider the swings). As in the case of the initial oscillations that preceded the ball’s movement into the first valley, the movement into a second valley is preceded by oscillations—though in this case the oscillations are usually very large and quite public. Everyone knows that things are in disarray and that something is about to happen. Unfortunately, one can only speculate on what will happen under these conditions of disarray or chaos. When the ball is swinging widely from one ridge to the other, it has as great a chance of moving over the top of the left ridge into the adjacent valley as it does of moving over the top of the right ridge into that adjacent valley. Most of the members of an organization don’t really know much about either of the adjacent valleys and there is always hope that the ball will continue to roll down the current valley and never really go over the top.

If the ball does move over the top of one of the ridges, then it will roll down the side of the second valley. A whole new set of parameters will be in operation. The organization needs to make some immediate adjustments to this new valley. The ball will not be at the top of the valley when it rolls over the top of the ridge. Hence, it is not like a ball that is starting at the top of the valley and has had ample opportunity to learn from its mistakes. The ball/organization and its members must “hit the ground running” in this new valley. It will never be the same as a ball/organization that started at the top of the valley. It must instead develop its own style. A large company that downsizes will never be the same as a smaller company that was never large in the first place. A reformed alcoholic will never be the same as a lifelong teetotaler. The reformed alcoholic, for instance, might be more compassionate (or less compassionate) with regard to those who are still active drinkers. The wounds caused by downsizing will never really heal.