Gridlock and Chaos

Genuine commitment to transformational outcomes in communities inevitably leads to an
encounter with the tensions of gridlock and chaos. Some resolve the tension by merely
identifying their good intentions with transformation, failing to ask what has actually
changed in the lives of the poor. Genuineness questions the good at every level, at the
level of vision, expression, and outcomes.

There are some who mistakenly respond by claiming the best way to "do no harm" is to do
nothing. In a context of unequal power, failure to engage sufficiently, ensures the
forces of injustice and entropy operate unchecked. The social fabric of life unravels
under the unchallenged sway of exploitation, conflict, disease, and poverty...chaos.

On the other hand, operating under a mechanistic paradigm, development often exerts such
control over a context that it threatens the very dignity and autonomy of the people it
seeks to serve. Too much control creates dependency and vulnerability rather than
sustainability. Our structures grow bureaucratic, self-serving, rigid and resistant to
change. Eventually movement through the system slows, and effective action grinds to a
halt...gridlock.

Naive abdication of human responsibility selects in favor of chaos in human environments,
but neither can we engineer a solution, since, simply put, human society isn't an engine.
Join us as we explore the role that organic factors like Visionary Leadership, Community,
Process, Learning, and Values play in navigating between gridlock and chaos in
transformational development.