Typically, the primary problem confronting the participating entrepreneur is one of managing the complex process of moving back and forth between the real and ideal, between reflection and action, between caution and risk. Participating entrepreneurs are accustomed to addressing the conflicts that are inevitable in keeping an organization attuned to these various tensions. Rather than avoiding conflict by opting for one executive style, the participating entrepreneur believes that conflict is a sign that the organization is trying to balance and integrate these differing perspectives.
The spirit of participating executive functioning is effectively conveyed in the description offered by Wheatley regarding the role of disorder in today’s organizations. We create disorder, suggests Wheatley, “when we invite conflicts and contradictions to rise to the surface, when we search them out, highlight them, even allowing them to grow large and worrisome. . . . No longer the caretakers of order, we become the facilitators of disorder. We stir things up and roil the pot, looking always for those disturbances that challenge and disrupt until, finally, things become so jumbled that we reorganize work at a new level of efficacy.”
There are several important lessons for the participating entrepreneur to learn if she intends to roil the pot. First, the disruption must engage many people. The participating executive can not do it alone. If she does, then the disruption is easily dismissed as the product of a troublemaker or crazy person. Second, having increased the challenge for members of the closely-held enterprise, a participating executive must know how to provide sufficient time and support for members of the closely-held enterprise to absorb and respond to this disequilibrium. This is a key role for the effective participating entrepreneur. She must ensure that there is a balance between the challenge associated with conflict, chaos and the support offered by the group and by the executive herself.
