Life Assembles Itself into Chains

Today I continue my exploration of how the life-sciences have discovered patterns that can help us be better leaders.The second pattern is that “Life Assembles Itself in Chains” (from the book The Way Life Works).

At the core of the chain is the atom, which is the elemental unit of everything in the universe, both living and nonliving. Second, in the chain we have molecules, which are atoms bonded together. Third in scale are chain molecules, which are very long strings of many simple molecules linked to one another. Fourth, chain molecules can fit together inside a cell in a complex chain called a molecular structure. Fifth, life assembles itself at the cellular level.

Chains all convey information. Examples are: DNA, where the chains twist into a double helix; Morse Code is a chain of dots and dashes; computer language which is only a chain of ones and zeros; and the English language which is a chain of 26 letters.

Based upon this crucial pattern, I present my ideas on how this concept, Life Assembles Itself into Chains, can be applied to organizations, and to leadership:

At their core, organizations require repeatable processes to be able to function effectively. As leaders, you must first and foremost be sure that you recognize and communicate the underlying patterns and principles at the core of your organization.
As with chain molecules, leaders need to recognize that organizations fall into two main classes. First, there are chains of information which enable people in the organization to make good decisions, based on past processes and access to accumulated data. Second, there are working chains, which are the people, aided by technology, who conduct the business.
To be an effective leader, you must have self-awareness of the patterns of behavior which make up the chains of your own life. At a personal level, you must recognize how you are assembled, based on your DNA, family and cultural history, and learning from personal experience.
You must also recognize that every person in your organization, while having their own unique attributes, are each assembled with the same basic building blocks.
To be an effective leader, you must look at your organization as a whole and recognize what all organization- and life- have in common. As Mahlon Hoagland notes, “We must look beyond the individual insect or tree or flower, and seek a more panoramic perspective.” Or as John Steinbeck writes in Log from the Sea of Cortez – “All things are one thing, and that one thing is all things – a plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time.”

For your information, and an idea of what I will be covering periodically over the next several months, here are the Sixteen Patterns which unite us all: