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Thanks to all who responded to our first Adaptive Action inquiry. Fifteen people shared their views of WHAT leadership looks like. As you might expect from a diverse Twitter-connected crowd, the responses were interesting and varied. One person summed up the findings nicely, “Leadership in a CAS [complex adaptive system see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system and wiki.hsdinstitute.org/complex_adaptive_system] context is framed very differently than the traditional top-down models of leadership.” In the midst of the diverse responses, two themes emerged.

The “attractor” is not the thing that “attracts”. It is the pattern of relationships that emerge over time in a complex system. When I first encountered attractors—strange and other kinds—I thought they were cool. Even more than that, I thought they were the key to the next generation of change paradigms. I still think that may be true, but I seldom talk about them anymore. I almost never teach them because it is so hard to understand them well and very easy to understand them badly. The only reason I am talking about them now is that I cannot think of a better way to explain what I see in this emerging present. So, here goes.