Leveraging Chaos: The Mysteries of Leadership and Policy Revealed

Citation

Issah, M. (2011), "Leveraging Chaos: The Mysteries of Leadership and Policy Revealed", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 343-345. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231111129127

In an ever‐changing environment, leaders not only have to lead their organizations through the change process, but are also confronted with competing interests, multiple constituents, and a constant stream of information. Such a complex environment requires leaders and policy makers to have a thorough understanding of the interrelationship between the factors that they manage on daily basis. Managing such complex environment is the result of continuous school reforms. Therefore, leaders need the requisite wisdom and competencies to succeed in leading people and institutions in the context of complex environments. Without a new thinking or view of what is hidden behind the social and physical systems, leaders will not be able to achieve realistic and desirable outcomes at the organizational and policy levels. The book Leveraging Chaos: The Mysteries of Leadership and Policy Revealed by John R. Shoup and Susan Clark Studer provides a user‐friendly framework for leaders to apply in leading complex environments and to use this complexity theory or framework to better understand American educational system.

The book is a creative application of complexity theory to education, providing twenty‐first century leaders an in‐depth and systematic perspective of complex environments, and a guided practice in an increasingly complex environment. The book is brilliantly organized into four chapters. The authors begin each chapter with relevant quote(s) that captures the attention of the reader and gives focus of the respective chapter, and ends with a conclusion and summary section. The chapters are logically arranged, starting with a simple and succinct explanation of complexity theory leading into its application to American educational system, and leveraging complexity at the policy and organizational levels.

Chapter 1 “Complexity simplified” provides seven simple principles for understanding what the authors describe as “self‐organized logic lurking behind complexity” (p. 4) that appear to manage all dynamic multilinear and nonlinear systems. These seven principles include: homeostasis and change, strange attractors, fractals, cybernetics, emergence, sensitive dependence, and self‐organized criticality. At first blush, these concepts appear overly scientific and technical. However, the authors simplify these concepts by applying them to everyday life situations. Their examples provide basic understanding to first‐time readers of complexity theory. The authors assert that each concept is a logical extension of the other and explains why and how dynamic systems function, survive, and even thrive in the midst of chaos.

As the title of Chapter 2 “Complexity at work in the American educational system”, suggests, the authors present a brief history of the US educational system and reform effort. Reform efforts in the US educational system are viewed within the framework of the seven principles explained in Chapter 1. While Chapter 1 provided a foundational understanding of the concepts, Chapter 2 serves as an application of the concepts to the evolution of policy and practice in the US educational system. Their brief history may be particularly useful for international students and readers from outside of US educational leadership and policy (e.g. business leaders).

Chapter 3 “Leveraging complexity at the policy level” presents the reforms according to the dominant American values and illustrates the dynamic pattern of policy reform that is revealed when presented from a nonlinear perspective consistent with the features of complex adaptive systems. Furthermore, the chapter illustrates how features of past policies reflect in present reform policies as well as mirrored by future events.

Chapter 4 “Leveraging complexity at the organizational level”, the final chapter, provides specific and insightful principles, examples, and illustrations on how to specifically lead complex, nonlinear dynamic systems at both the organizational and policy level. For each of the seven main principles of complexity theory, specific principles are provided on how to lead. For instance, Homeostasis and change imply the maintenance of equilibrium and balance in the environment through constant adaptations. Therefore, to keep the organization on course, one of the leadership principles is for leaders to anticipate and selectively welcome change. For example, the extreme measures in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) would not have been necessary if leaders had recognized and anticipated the direction of change and made appropriate adjustments along the way. Other principles include recognizing that many problems are solutions waiting to happen, and attending to the 80/20 rule. Also strange attractors (non‐negotiables that establish a range of acceptable limits of certainty and uncertainty) is another principle of complexity theory. One of the specific leadership principles associated with strange attractors is for leaders to determine the non‐negotiables of their institution since not all changes are worthwhile. For instance, employees need to do what employers want otherwise they will be out of a job. The specific principles also include leaders to determine the hierarchy of non‐negotiables, and be ethical.

This book is an easy‐to‐read guide for the twenty‐first century leaders and policy makers with the responsibility to achieve desired outcomes in an increasingly complex environment. Although the overly scientific concepts may turn off some readers at first glance, those who delve deeper will find Shoup and Studer's (2010) book to be an essential reference for school leaders, business leaders, policy makers and scholars alike for understanding increasingly complex environment.

While it is a theoretical approach to addressing challenges from a system perspective, it makes use of relevant policy reforms and provides guiding principles for practice. The highlight of the book is the insights it provides on the American educational system and the dominating value(s) of each reform. It enables leaders to anticipate future policy reforms and the associated challenges, and how to lead through such changes.