Humility is a much abused word. We have become used to it meaning someone with an overtly quiet and unassuming attitude rather than a leader having a strength that does not require constant recognition.

Doing some thinking and being challenged by what this meant I came to two principal conclusions:

Firstly, humility is the ability to not overstate or understate our abilities or emotions, but simply to be as honest as possible. Not to boast, but to achieve in changing the world by knowing our vision and understanding the needs of those around us. The Medievals listed the understating of our abilities, or false humility, as much a sin as boasting. False humility was, and is, not something to practised or admired. True humility leads to one of the cornerstones of leadership: a true understanding of ourselves; perhaps this is this the medieval definition of emtional intelligence?

And secondly, humility is how we receive. If we receive advice, and even criticism with a listening heart then our actions come from a place of action that places change at its center, that than more human negative emotions.

And the natural conclusion? Leaders who listen, are more effective than those who shout.

As a thank you for organizing the organization development world congress the organization development institute has asked me to Alabama for the 37th annual information exchange.

The event will be held from the 20th-25th May 2007 at the Beckwith conference center which is located near Weeks Bay. Local photographer David Rencher has some stunning shots of the local area up in a slideshow. The Beckwith conference center is designed to be a haven: no TVs in the bedrooms and is located in 54 acres of woodlands.

The theme of the information exchange this year is two-fold. Firstly, “What is new in OD and HR?” and “Organization development in crisis situations”. Given the recent visit by President Bush to the area due to horrific tornados, and the work of FEMA following the New Orleans disaster these are highly relevant and useful topics.

One past participant wrote: “This is a conference you should attend if you want to meet people in the field who are really passionate about their work and helping others in the field. It is a great place for those who are new to the field to get some advice and support and get a taste of what OD is all about. The huge diversity of topics and people is very impressive. We are truly building a learning community - each participant has full responsibility for making the conference worthwhile. It was very unlike most other conferences where all you are expected to do is sponge learning from others. Here, we taught each other, both through the presentation and through lots of invaluable unstructured conversation time.”

The chair of the conference is Dr Jeanne Maes RODP, who was chair of the 18th OD world congress in Dublin, and aside from university work is involved with the Conflict Resolution Center. The Supreme Court in Alabama adopted guidelines for conflict resoution based on the center’s work.

This should be an exciting event for all interested and involved in OD - I am certainly looking forward to it - a chance to deepen knowledge and meet others is always welcome.

Dr Michael L Chase has some lively photos from the 2005 information exchange on his site which gives a good idea of how non-posturing the event is.

Entropy is a really wonderful example in nature of how intelegant systems can be:

The concept of entropy (Greek: εν (en=inside) + verb: τρέπω (trepo= to chase, escape, rotate, turn)) in thermodynamics is central to the second law of thermodynamics, which deals with physical processes and whether they occur spontaneously. Spontaneous changes occur with an increase in entropy. Spontaneous changes tend to smooth out differences in temperature, pressure, density, and chemical potential that may exist in a system, and entropy is thus a measure of how far this smoothing-out process has progressed. In contrast, the first law of thermodynamics deals with the concept of energy, which is conserved. Entropy change has often been defined as a change to a more disordered state at a molecular level. In recent years, entropy has been interpreted in terms of the “dispersal” of energy. Entropy is an extensive state function that accounts for the effects of irreversibility in thermodynamic systems.

Quantitatively, entropy, symbolized by S, is defined by the differential quantity dS = δQ / T, where δQ is the amount of heat absorbed in an isothermal and reversible process in which the system goes from one state to another, and T is the absolute temperature at which the process is occurring. Entropy is one of the factors that determines the free energy of the system.

This thermodynamic definition of entropy is only valid for a system in equilibrium (because temperature is defined only for a system in equilibrium), while statistical definition of entropy (see below) applies to any system. Thus the statistical definition is usually considered fundamental definition of entropy.

When a system’s energy is defined as the sum of its “useful” energy, (e.g. that used to push a piston), and its “useless energy”, i.e. that energy which cannot be used for external work, then entropy may be (most concretely) visualized as the “scrap” or “useless” energy whose energetic prevalence over the total energy of a system is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the considered system. (Note the product “TS” in the Gibbs free energy or Helmholtz free energy relations).

In terms of statistical mechanics, the entropy describes the number of the possible microscopic configurations of the system. The statistical definition of entropy is the more fundamental definition, from which all other definitions and all properties of entropy follow. Although the concept of entropy was originally a thermodynamic construct, it has been adapted in other fields of study, including information theory, psychodynamics, thermoeconomics, and evolution.

Finally, entropy is intelegant: it is an elegant way to measure waste: how much money, time, and personnel are wasted getting the organization to do what it is naturally meant to do, and why is that happening are not trivial questions.

[While I am a frustrated engineer, I am not a physic's genius: the defintion is from Wikipedia]