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Antinomy: a contradiction between two statements that seem equally reasonable; an apparent contradiction between valid conclusions; a paradox. In Small is Beautiful – a study of economics as if people mattered, E.F. Schumacher stated that ‘all real human problems arise from the antinomy of order and freedom'. What he said back in 1973 more than holds in the present day. "We need to find a new way forward – loosen control, encourage innovation and imagination." We continue to switch between positions – from central to local, big to small and back to big, aggregate to disaggregate. Of course what Schumacher had in mind was that these positions are equally valid but that to justify the choices we make we present them as ‘right' answers and then defend them, often by rubbishing the alternatives. Consider two current and critical issues: economic value drivers of change and building organisational capability. The former has reducing cost at its centre. We look to downsize, outsource, get more for less, be lean and fit and look for economies through mergers and shared services. Order, control and metrics come to the fore. But we also know that organisational capability is as much, if not more, about people and culture. We look for engagement, motivation, empowerment and relationships that sustain high personal performance. As Schumacher puts it, ‘the entrepreneurship venturing into the unknown and incalculable....the risk and the gamble, the creative imagination rushing in where bureaucratic angels fear to tread'. We see this played out all the time. We need to find a new way forward – loosen control, encourage innovation and imagination. Without efficiency and control things fragment and become financially unsustainable; without freedom and creativity we lose our soul. ‘Therefore any organisation has to strive continuously for the orderliness of order and the disorderliness of creative freedom' (Schumacher) not lurch between the two. Martin Horton is director of Solace Enterprises

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WHITEHALL

Soap Box

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