Hi Harold,
Hi Harold,

I don't know if you've ever read Gareth Morgan's work on the use of metaphors in business so that people can cope with complexity. Here's an overview http://www.devco.demon.co.uk/Metaphors-of-Orgs-1.html. Also, Morgan's "Images of Organizations" is a must-read.

A metaphor that I find particularly interesting when it comes to innovation and change is "flux and transformation". It sees organizations as being most of the time in a state of organized chaos i.e. evolving around a Lorentz attractor. From time to time, organizations get at the edge of their chaotic system and tip into another evolutive system i.e. they revolve around a new attractor. Not very pratical I admit, but interesting conceptually.

Yan Simard