Aides
Generative relationships

Organizational planners, then, might conceive of themselves as organizational "matchmakers" bringing together diverse organizational "genetic material" and mixing it up and seeing what ensues. But these should be strange matches, bringing together what was previously thought of as incompatible elements or components or subsystems. For example, bringing together janitorial staff with product designers, customers with suppliers, finance executives with secretaries on nursing floors. In fact, the more seemingly incompatible the elements, the more they probably need to be brought together. The emphasis, here, of course, is on experimentation and the allowance of emergent patterns that are unanticipated and have unexpected outcomes. Again, one cannot know the correct solution ahead of time, so one needs to work with whatever emerges through recombination. Such organizational matchmaking links to Lane's and Maxfield's (1996) idea of generative relationships which are connections among people which generate new organizational forms, directions and strategies. A generative relationship is based on heterogeneity, it leads to greater action possibilities, it promotes the sharing of information (hence, the flow of innovation), and it sets up the conditions for more novel relationships. Organization leader/planners as Tricksters make and engender more matches and thus build into a feedback cycle of expanding networks. This is emergence and self-organization at its best.

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