The phrase “Permanent White Water” was coined by Peter Vaill in the early 1990’s to describe the nature of intense, dynamic change that has no reprieve.
Today, we know this intense change to be exponential and hugely anxiety producing.
How to keep from being overwhelmed?
- develop your ability to tolerate uncertainty (it’s ok to ‘not know’)
- develop your ability to zero in on the most important matters (major on the majors; minor on the minors)
- develop a digital mindset and begin off-loading stuff to powerful digital cloud computing tools like Evernote (keep the brain sane by not trying to remember everything)
Below are some great insights – written in the early 1990’s!
Permanent white water conditions are full of surprises…the continual occurrence of problems that are not ‘supposed’ to happen.
Complex systems tend to produce novel problem never even imagined by those involved.
Permanent white water conditions feature events that are ‘messy’ and ill-structured, and have ramifications far and wide.
White water events are often extremely costly, both in terms of dollars and effort to cope with the problem and deal with the damage.
Permanent white water puts organizations and their members in the position of continually doing things they have little experience with or have never done before at all. The feeling of ‘playing a whole new ball game’ thoroughly pervades organizational life.
We aren’t comfortable letting things happen, adopting the Chinese notion of “wu-wei” (no action). But amid the complex turbulences and contingencies of the present world, our impulse to crush a problem with a rational analysis isn’t serving us so well either [!!!]
Teamwork doesn’t happen automatically, and it doesn’t result just from the exhortations of a single leader. Teamwork results from members paying attention to how they are working together, and consciously developing patterns of working together that all members find challenging and satisfying. [positive role models leading the way are essential].
In the world of permanent whitewater, one cannot know where the next opportunity or threat is going to come from. Yet when it comes, a great deal depends on possessing or being able rapidly to acquire a useful way of thinking about it so that courses of action on has under way will not be shattered. This job that calls for the whole person is enormously absorbing.
The modern organization is a “values-muddled” place – indeed a “values-anguished” place.
We are indeed in a deep crisis of leadership, management, and organizational effectiveness.
Peter Vaill Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water and Managing as a Performing Art: New Ideas for a World of Chaotic Change
