THE CHAORDIC STEPPING STONES A Planning tool for designing participatory processes Chris Corrigan www.chriscorrigan.com Working in the chaordic space The term “chaordic” comes from combining the words “chaos” and “order.” It is a word coined by Dee Hock to identify organizations that intentionally blend characteristic of chaos and order. In this document, we use this term to indicate that we are working in a space of complexity, where there is much that is unpredictable and unknown. Our job as people who are hosting strategic work in this space - whether it is a conversation, a meeting or a longer term strategic initiative - is to bring some form and order to the unpredictability while letting the emergent properties of complex systems bring us new ideas, insight and innovation. This is difficult to do without a road map, and the chaordic stepping stones provide both a guide path and a set of lenses to plan and reflect on this work. 1 21
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