I
am a firm believer in the Butterfly Effect because I believe what we do
now, the “small changes that yield large results” and can change a
chain of events. This is also a similar idea to the book called The
Secret by Rhonda Byrne which states what you say or do is put out into
the universe and what is out there cannot be taken back and can forever
change future events. These types of phenomenons take place because
people do not realize what they are doing and how their actions now can
and often do have a lasting effect on the future.
Below I am going to provide 2 examples of how small changes and yield large results in the organization I work for.
Example 1
Recently the organization that I work for did a massive infrastructure restructure that unified Headquarters and the field locations; centralization. This centralization was a small change in the bigger picture of the organization. The organization as a whole has been going through many new changes in order to create a stronger university for the students, faculty, and staff members. In this restructure, the organization removed the regional boundaries and eliminated 3 of the 4 regional offices which resulted in the layoffs of 20 employees. Although this decision was made in order to create a central unit and end the disconnect between the field staff and headquarters staff, what ended up happening yielded large results. Due to the nature of how this information was presented, the field staff felt as though all locations were going to be closing and everyone was going to be laid off. This massive eruption of emotions from employees made not only field staff and faculty members uncomfortable, it also made headquarters uneasy as well. I believe if there was an email sent out first explaining what was taking place with a follow-up virtual meeting to explain the information, staff, and faculty wouldn’t have felt so blindsided. As of now the decision to close to the regional offices and remove regional boundaries still has left people feeling uneasy but slowly everyone is coming around. This is one of those times in an organizational restructure where patience is necessary.
Example 2
To piggyback on the previous example, post implementation of the organizational restructure, a new and critical position was created. The Director of Training and Professional Development was asked to step in and establish training modules for the field in order to unify the Director of Academic Support trainings; now the DAS’s would be directly reporting to that position at the headquarters level. This would be a relatively simple project and would help to continue to build on the idea of unity but unfortunately it is slowly but surely turning into the sight of an atomic bomb. When creating a new service, one must understand how that service will affect others, how will it change the current process, and will it do more harm than good? It is starting to look as those it will do more harm than good. Due to the nature of the organization, each aspect of the DAS training process affect many teams; in some cases the effects on those teams are worse than necessary. As of now the DAS training modules are still in development and I am trying to make sure that these are a positive and not negative implementation for the university but I cannot tell at this early stage.
One little step, change in the wind or drop of rain can change the world. The Butterfly Effect is defined as the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago. This phenomenon is everywhere and will never go away this means that we have to understand each step we make as that one step can change the world before we even realize it.
Below I am going to provide 2 examples of how small changes and yield large results in the organization I work for.
Example 1
Recently the organization that I work for did a massive infrastructure restructure that unified Headquarters and the field locations; centralization. This centralization was a small change in the bigger picture of the organization. The organization as a whole has been going through many new changes in order to create a stronger university for the students, faculty, and staff members. In this restructure, the organization removed the regional boundaries and eliminated 3 of the 4 regional offices which resulted in the layoffs of 20 employees. Although this decision was made in order to create a central unit and end the disconnect between the field staff and headquarters staff, what ended up happening yielded large results. Due to the nature of how this information was presented, the field staff felt as though all locations were going to be closing and everyone was going to be laid off. This massive eruption of emotions from employees made not only field staff and faculty members uncomfortable, it also made headquarters uneasy as well. I believe if there was an email sent out first explaining what was taking place with a follow-up virtual meeting to explain the information, staff, and faculty wouldn’t have felt so blindsided. As of now the decision to close to the regional offices and remove regional boundaries still has left people feeling uneasy but slowly everyone is coming around. This is one of those times in an organizational restructure where patience is necessary.
Example 2
To piggyback on the previous example, post implementation of the organizational restructure, a new and critical position was created. The Director of Training and Professional Development was asked to step in and establish training modules for the field in order to unify the Director of Academic Support trainings; now the DAS’s would be directly reporting to that position at the headquarters level. This would be a relatively simple project and would help to continue to build on the idea of unity but unfortunately it is slowly but surely turning into the sight of an atomic bomb. When creating a new service, one must understand how that service will affect others, how will it change the current process, and will it do more harm than good? It is starting to look as those it will do more harm than good. Due to the nature of the organization, each aspect of the DAS training process affect many teams; in some cases the effects on those teams are worse than necessary. As of now the DAS training modules are still in development and I am trying to make sure that these are a positive and not negative implementation for the university but I cannot tell at this early stage.
One little step, change in the wind or drop of rain can change the world. The Butterfly Effect is defined as the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago. This phenomenon is everywhere and will never go away this means that we have to understand each step we make as that one step can change the world before we even realize it.
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