The Flower Chronicles - A Radical Approach to Systems and Organizational Development

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Albert Einstein has stated-“when the Solution is Simple, God is Answering”. There is in fact a simple answer staring at us from all facets and corners of life, regardless of the of the question, regardless of the problem. This answer is summarized by a flower, and captured in the journey that a seed makes in becoming a flower.

In this journey there are 3 stages-the seed or physical state, the stalk or vital state, and the flower or mental state. Any sustainable organization or system will be found to have traversed these stages. Any organization or system that is floundering or facing challenges, will be found to be stuck in one of these stages.

Hence, the state of an organization or system can be understood by chronicling the stages of the flower journey it may have gone through. Its road to fulfilment can be envisaged by foreseeing the stages of the flower journey it has yet to go through. This simple truth is true regardless of the scale or complexity of the organization or system.

Pravir has over 20 years of experience in the field of Organizational Development. In specific he has deep analyses, modelling and synthesis experience and has developed a fractal model and mathematics for organization. He has been a founding Member of A.T. Kearney India, served as the Managing director Advisory services of BSR-a leading global CSR consulting company, been an Intent Architect with Conner Partners, served on the HR Leadership team of Stanford Hospital & Clinics, and been a professor at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. He has an M.B.A. from J.L. Kellogg Graduate school of Management of the North-western University, Chicago, an M.S. in computer science from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and a B.S.E. in computer Engineering from the case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

This book is the third in a series. Perhaps it is fair to say that the series is a trilogy.

The first book "Connecting Inner Power with Global Change: The Fractal Ladder" introduced a fractal model that offered a deeper analyses and framework for change for organizations and systems, regardless of size and complexity.

The second book "Redesigning the Stock Market: A Fractal Approach" utilized the fractal model and analyzed key aspects of our global financial system and the resulting crises, and suggested a way to redesign the stock market to make business and our financial system more sustainable.

This book "The Flower Chronicles: A Radical Approach to Systems and Organizational Development" looks at many categories of organizational and system problems from the local to the global, and suggests ways to reinterpret and address these based on the ubiquitous fractal for progress that was identified in Connecting Inner Power with Global Change. This ubiquitous fractal for progress is simply represented by the growth of a flower.

As such, this book is a field guide for the more complex model introduced in Connecting Inner Power with Global Change, and puts into simpler language and more practical terms solutions to complex organizational problems. I was propelled to write this book for a few reasons.

First, was the feedback I received when the initial book went into print, that it was too complex. The publisher themselves indicated to me that while "the book was a jewel and they were therefore obliged to publish it, it would never be a bestseller", Given this I wanted to summarize the complex model into its essence in a simple way.

Second, I wanted to indicate its vast applicability in a range of areas. Hence in this book I have applied the Flower model to a diverse range of areas such as individual development, organizational development, political development, country development, market development, amongst other areas. In my estimation this book is in general a far easier read than the previous ones in the trilogy, and further, it can be read independently of the other two. If there is a difficult section it is only in the first few pages where I translate the more complex fractal model into its essence, as captured by the growth of a flower. But the reader will quickly find that the basic idea is reinforced again and again in many different areas that are subsequently considered through the rest of the book. Hence any initial complexity is quickly diffused and progressively will become second nature as one continues with the reading.

Albert Einstein has stated - "When the Solution is Simple, God is Answering." There is in fact a simple answer staring at us from all facets and corners of life, regardless of the question, regardless of the problem. This answer is summarized by a flower, and captured in the journey that a seed makes in becoming a flower.

In this journey there are 3 stages - the seed or physical state, the stalk or vital state, and the flower or mental state. Any sustainable organization or system will be found to have traversed these stages. Any organization or system that is floundering or facing challenges, will be found to be stuck in one of these stages.

Hence, the state of an organization or system can be understood by chronicling the stages of the flower journey it may have gone through. Its road to fulfilment can be envisaged by foreseeing the stages of the flower journey it has yet to go through.

This simple truth is true regardless of the scale or complexity of the organization or system. Hence it is true of the person, of a team, of a corporation, of a market, of a country, or of a global system.

The Flower Chronicles will elaborate this simple approach through reflecting on many classes of practical organizational and system problems we are confronted with daily. These reflections will be from the realms of personal development, organizational development, industry development, market and financial development, political development, and global development.

The book consists of 8 parts. In Part 1 - The Flower Philosophy, the radical approach to organization and system development will be simply laid out. In Part 2 - Individual Development, the key role that an individual has in bringing about ground-breaking change will be explored. In Part 3, Organizational Design & Development, some organizational basics will be laid out, an interesting case-study on the SOO-yr old architectural masterpiece, Machu Picchu, will be explored, and some experiments over the course of three years in the application of the Flower Chronicles conducted by the author at Stanford University Medical Center will be discussed.

Part 4, Industry Development, will explore the future of key industries such as Food & Agriculture, Energy, Retail, Internet, Software, Healthcare, and Consulting, from a Flower Chronicles perspective. Part 5, Financial Rebirth, will look at how to shift our global financial environment by changing the way markets function, again by the application of the Flower Chronicles paradigm.

Part 6, Global Political Development, will in look at some global lessons from the 2012 Presidential Election in the USA, and study some of the issues discussed from a Flower Chronicles perspective. Suggestions for creating a safer, more peaceful world will naturally emerge from also looking at macro- and micro-level developments that need to take place in various regions of the world. Part 7, The Nth + 1 Wave of Sustainability, will examine the deepest drivers of sustainability and provide some insight into how to promote these. The role that Human Resources can play in making this real will be examined. Finally, Part 8, Paradigms for the Future, will examine a flower-based framework of future development; some paradigms to move us along the phases of this framework, and a possible future were the journey to the heart of the flower to be successfully completed.

The answers are simple, and are always staring at us in the face. The real issue is whether we have the courage and will to execute what is being suggested. This too is a certainty, but like every other journey, has to go through stages before it culminates in the reality of a flower.