From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance,
by Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer (Revised Edition)

Sample Chapter
Chapter 1

Business at the Speed of Balance

Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity...we shall harness...the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, men will have discovered fire.
—TEILHARD DE CHARDIN


THERE IS A QUIET REVOLUTION GOING ON IN THE HEARTS, chat rooms, and board rooms of corporations the world over. People are talking about things that count. About issues of meaning, of value, of care for each other. It springs from a longing to be more than our job. But it arises also from our desire to do great work, and to be deeply proud of the organization we're part of.

I spent the weekend recently with a group of women executives who had met at a Stanford executive program five years earlier. They spend four days every year, reuniting and telling about their careers, their families, their frustrations, their hopes. They have created a community to help fill a void many felt working at senior levels at some of the world's most successful technology companies. Their hearts want to connect and their spirits want balance. They are not an isolated example.

Over the past decade this revolution has been flying under the radar of a media glamorized by the internet, e-everything, merger mania and the most rapid change this planet has ever seen. It is a revolution of purpose and meaning, of putting a stake in the ground and saying, "This is the life I want to have. This is the kind of organization I want to work in."

The dizzying pace of technological achievement has given us the belief that anything is possible. That life can be exciting, challenging, edgy, and wild—without losing our sense of balance. The heart is coming alive.

Speed is an incredible drug. Just ask a Formula One driver, a day-trader, or the CEO of any one of thousands of start-ups trying desperately to get there first with the next great idea, the really cool technology, the killer app. We have convinced ourselves faster is better, indeed faster is mandatory. Lethargy, even balance, is death in today's
markets. But what fuel is driving us? Is our organization—are we—running on high-octane or the fumes of fear? Fear we'll lose the race, be left behind, be dumped in the trash heap of what could have been?

Balance sounds boring. And who's got time for it? Who cares that our bodies were not designed to handle the incredible information tsunami unleashed over the last decade? Who cares that information is now doubling every 12- 18 months, compared to every 30-36 months in 1995, or every 20 years back in 1954? Who cares that most people in business today must process hundreds of inputs daily (one survey suggests 196 messages per day is the current average), let alone their regular job?!? Who cares that in parallel with the globalization of information has developed an alarming use of youth violence? Or that it took the planet several million years to reach 3 billion inhabitants, and less than 50 to add 3 billion more.¹

Lots of people care.
From Chaos to Coherence was written for the future of business and the future potential of people. It proposes a new way to build organizations that respond to change, crisis, and challenge with poise, flexibility, and balance. Organizations built of people who respond quickly and caringly to changes in the economy, their markets, their culture, and in themselves. The "how" is a blend of science, business practicality, and the intelligence of the human heart and intellect.

Our view is that a new level of organizational efficiency, synchronization, and effectiveness is possible by studying and applying new information about the intelligence of the human system. Organizations will make only incremental improvements in effectiveness and sustainability until a more thorough and sensitive understanding of human processes resides at the core of how organizations function. It is time to really start caring.

Research during the '90s profoundly affected our knowledge of human intelligence, opening up radical new possibilities. The fact that intelligence is distributed throughout the human system and that the heart is an intelligent system profoundly affecting brain processing represents a new model for helping organizational systems become more balanced, more intelligent, more adaptive, and more humane. In many ways, the emergence of the Web mirrors this discovery.

Our team set out to build a coherent organization that would put both care and efficiency at the heart of all our activities: care for our clients and care for ourselves, efficient service for our customers, and internal efficiency for ourselves. Many of the 20 or so who formed the original core team here at HeartMath had worked in companies or public agencies mired in incoherence and ineffectiveness. Human values often were absent, and so was business efficiency. Early on, Doc recognized a link between the heart of a person and the heart of an organization. He knew organizations reflect the collective mind-sets and attitudes of the people who inhabit them.

We spent most of the ‘90s deeply researching human physiology and organizational effectiveness. We tested our theories and tools with thousands of people in dozens of public and private sector organizations in North America, Europe and Asia, and in the organizations we built. Through this process developed Inner Quality Management^® (IQM), a set of scientificallybased tools for helping businesses (all organizations) work at the speed of balance.

THE FOUR DYNAMICS OF IQM
The four dynamics of inner quality management are straight forward:

• Internal self-management
• Coherent communication
• Boosting organizational climate
• Strategic processes of renewal

A cornerstone of IQM is internal self-management— helping people manage their mind and emotions effectively. Creativity, decision-making, even health and well-being all improve when mind and emotions are coherent and relatively noise-free. This is essential for building a high performance organization in this age of accelerating change. Achieving coherent communication in an increasingly noisy world is the prime objective of the second dynamic. This involves both the huge volumes of electronic communication we are exposed to as well as the interpersonal stuff. The kind that drives us crazy—or brings deep satisfaction. A growing body of research is revealing the role climate plays in an organization's long-term health and performance, and we all know what it feels like to work in a place we love versus one we don't. This is where Dynamic three will lead us. Dynamic four reminds us, through additional tools and case studies, of the ongoing need for renewal in the very processes organizations rely on. The objective of all this is increased coherence in all aspects of individual and organizational life. (Chapter 2 will introduce the four dynamics in greater depth.)

It's Alive!
Consider that all organizations are living systems composed of people who think and feel. Each organization is a large complex organism whose health and resilience depends on the same factors that determine an individual's health and balance. Smart organizations—like smart people—are now paying attention to the elements that are working as well as those that are not. Any number of factors can weaken and diminish the effectiveness of the others: change in market, change in leadership, change in government. Change of any kind increasingly affects an organization's resilience, its perspective, and its clarity of purpose. It's fairly easy to spot the business outcomes of such change. But it's much harder—and more courageous—to understand the effects at the individual level.

Dynamic 1. Internal Self-Management
If you have spent much of your career working in a medium to large corporation, you have no doubt been trained to improve quality, think strategically, outpace the competition, or keep the customer satisfied. More than ever organizations have to see outside themselves. Isolationism and myopia don't cut it in the New Economy. It's all about connections, partnering, collaborating, and leveraging what we have through the strengths and talents of others. Many organizations are realizing that it's the adaptability, the creativity, and the innovative intelligence within the individual that is the only real competitive advantage any organization has.

In some ways, the military has focused on this more than the private sector, historically. Its number one objective must always be "force readiness."² There is no question, in the minds of military leaders, that the individual must be prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically to deal with anything, including life-and-death situations. Too often businesses forget this critical emphasis on sustaining, nurturing, and preparing the individual and, because of a basic emotional imbalance in most organizations, twist mundane problems into life-and-death dramas. People making the transition from military to business careers often are shocked by the craziness in for-profit companies over issues "it ain't worth losing any sleep over." One of our clients, a veteran of the military and intelligence communities who interrogated Iraqi defectors during the Persian Gulf War, told us of his shock at the wasted energy he has seen in corporate America over mundane issues magnified beyond reason.

Internal self-management is based on these insights:

1. The pressure on the individual will increase in the years to come.
2. Understanding human processes—mental, emotional, and physical—is essential to the individual and the organization.
3. Identifying and plugging the leaks in your own system saves energy.
4. You can increase your capacity for intelligence.

Dynamic 2. Coherent Communication
The success of internal self-management techniques is first tested in interactions with others. In an increasingly connected world, communication is more prevalent and demanding than ever. Organizational and personal inefficiency compounds when the quality of communication is low, when the importance of it is ignored, or when we simply tell ourselves "other things are more pressing." Coherent communication is a model for effective information transfer and meaningful conversations between coworkers, with customers or constituents, and within oneself.

Coherent communication is based on four principles:

1. Achieve understanding first.
2. Listen nonjudgmentally.
3. Listen for the essence.
4. Be authentic.

Dynamic 3. Boosting the Organizational Climate
Significant research has demonstrated—and most people's personal experience confirms—the necessity of a positive workplace climate for effectiveness. This topic should not just be the domain of the human resources or personnel department, since everyone in the organization contributes to the climate, as do factors external to the workplace. Anyone who has been through a merger knows first-hand just how dramatic a climate change can be and how potentially devastating to personal productivity. This dynamic creates the internal environmental factors that support or, if ignored, undermine dynamics one and two.

The key principles here are:

1. An "emotional virus" is attacking many organizations today.
2. A healthy organizational climate fights the virus through supportive management, contribution, self-expression, recognition, clarity, and challenge.
3. Human qualities such as adaptability, shared core values, care, and appreciation are the hallmark of great places to work.
4. Understanding the distinction between knowledge and wisdom leads to smarter decisions and smarter organizations.

Dynamic 4. Strategic Processes of Renewal
Moving from theory, intelligent models, and case studies to practical application is essential for ongoing organizational coherence. This is the nitty-gritty of how the organization applies its learning. This also is the dynamic that allows the organization to renew itself at a strategic level, provided that the internal, communication and climate dynamics are well balanced and positive.

The principles of this dynamic are:

1. Balance is the keynote for self-renewing organizations.
2. Building effective teams and coaching skills can leverage an organization's intellectual capital.
3. Creativity and innovation arise out of coherent people.
4. Complex decision-making requires "big picture" thinking.

This book provides specific tools for the intelligent orchestration of each dynamic. Weakness in any area strains the whole system and hinders performance. Progress in any area boosts overall efficiency and effectiveness. It's all about dynamic balance.

1. Global Studies, Civilizations of the Past and Present, Revised 1998, Amsco School Publications, Inc., New York, NY
2. Because of HeartMath's extensive work in the military, we have had many conversations with military personnel from all four branches. Several bases, including McClellan AFB in Sacramento, have incorporated IQM programs in their training curricula.