Instability: a source of innovation
“The instability of certain systems is a source of innovation,”
, Ilya Prigogine
With around twenty other students at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Patrick Stevens was lucky enough to take classes in quantum mechanics between 1978 and 1979 given by Professor Ilya Prigogine. Ilya Prigogine had received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977 for his work on irreversibility in dissipative structures.
Aside from differential equations, our professor instilled his vision of the world – in particular organisational chaos – into us with his great verve and enthusiasm. Prigogine demonstrated that “the instability of certain systems – entropy – is a source of innovation and represents an opportunity to expand the dynamic.”
Prigogine showed that, contrary to received wisdom, in certain conditions, by moving further from the point of equilibrium, the system does not move towards its death or explosion, but rather towards the creation of a new order and a new state of balance. A new equilibrium can emerge from a situation of imbalance. Extreme situations conceal the possibility of creating a new structure. We therefore have the possibility of recreating something living and organised where there is nothing but chaos.
In The New Alliance – a book written with Isabelle Stengers – he concludes that “the science of turbulence shows that upheaval can create things, nature and people far from its original source.”
Now, long after taking these lessons, I cannot help but make the connection between the fear of change within a company on the one hand – the uncertainty connected to circumstances leading to a loss of security – and the dynamic for change on the other – the chance and opportunity for reconstruction.
My Nordic colleagues are champions of technological and social innovation and do not hesitate to overthrow the old structures in an organisation when the solution is irreversible.