Let me here suggest without any real evidence that Enron was the equivalent of ‘noise’ in a complex system — the squeak that portends a source of friction that is a sign of stress due to shift. Did anyone really consider ‘why’ Enron occurred — why, other than greed, individuals might have done what they did? By focusing on the ‘how’, everyone missed the real ‘why’ — because they could, catalyzed by unrealistic performance expectations, oh — and because business is just too darned complex to manage. The basics of complexity suggest that the ensuing legislative response — Sarbane-Oxley — was worse than a ruse (a complete waste of time and money), it added fuel to an already raging fire that everyone was, and still is, ignoring.

Now let me propose something even more apocalyptic: “because they could”. Don’t let the dimensions of greed and subversiveness cloud your understanding of this reality — each of us has the ability to leverage technology with access to resources that can, will and already is bringing down successful companies.

Here’s me, the individual often seen as the naysayer, extremely encouraged by all of this because of a natural law (well all natural laws really, but this one in particular):  self-reference. A relevant fact I’ve had stuffed in my basket since I learned about it from Margaret Wheatley in the mid-90s:

In response to environmental disturbances that signal the need for change, the system changes in a way that remains consistent with itself in that environment.

Leveraging her interpretations of Ilya Prigogine (who ironically penned a book called “The End of Certainty” in August 1997, the same month illegal investments began at Enron) Margaret went on to explain that all natural organisms can only respond in ways that are consistent with current understanding and beliefs. To do otherwise requires the ‘death’ of the current identity (either literally or figuratively). In psychology to ’stuff down’ one’s identity causes mental disorder — is there any doubt that Enron’s downfall was enabled by its own cultural identity disorder?

While it’s hard for us to fathom how entire ancient civilizations fell, Rome is burning. Nero fanned the flames (draw any serendipidous conclusions you want from the date of this post) and the men in white coats are standing by.