What Alexander Calder’s work, system thinking, and change management have in common

In Alexander Calder's mobiles, different objects of various shapes, sizes and colours are joined together by ropes of different lengths at varying heights and are held in perfect balance. They form a beautiful, unique, asymmetrical yet perfect combination. In Calder's works aesthetics, movement and balance are simultaneously achieved.

Systems theory observes how different actors, without apparent common qualities end up finding an equilibrium in which the totality of the elements co-exist, function and sustain each other.

I relate Calder's mobile and systems theory to the need to find a balance that allows the survival and evolution of any system (social, natural, or economic) to the extent that all the elements that are part of it find a simultaneous fit regardless of their uniqueness. I also use Calder's mobiles to explain that in order to initiate processes of change or innovation it is necessary to understand the individual elements as a part of the system to which they belong, as well as the laws that regulate them. Disruption involves breaking the established equilibrium to create a new one[i].

Conclusion:

Within a system each individual element serves as a support and is supported by others so that the balance is not broken. This explains why it is difficult to disrupt systems as such. Finding, training and promoting talent within a company or society is more complicated when the system of which the individual is a part of (one’s family, group of friends, department, or corporation) has found an equilibrium[ii]. The actor or event that programmatically or fortuitously alters the system triggers changes that unequally affect the elements of which it is a part.

In recent times it is precisely these fortuitous events (the pandemic, the war in Ukraine) but also ?digitalisation that leads to the creation of new business ecosystems that show how the disruption of existing systems leads to the creation of new ones[iii] and that we either wait to be displaced by the system once the changes occur or we individually or collectively initiate change management[iv].

[i][i] Lotter, Wolf: Zusammenh?nge, wie wir lernen die Welt wieder zu verstehen, Edition K?rber Hamburg 2020

[ii] Louis, éduard: Anleitung ein anderer zu werden, Aufbau Verlage GmbH & Co. KG Berlin 2022

[iii] Beck, Ulrich: Die Metamorphose der Welt, Suhrkamp 2017

[iv] Lauer, Thomas: Change Management Grundlage und Erfolgsfaktoren, Springer Gabler Verlag