Flexibility and change: finding a balance in governance and transition

In this chapter we look in detail at the nature and mechanisms of change and flexibility in governance. We distinguish several sources of change, of flexibility, and several forms of pseudo-change, pseudo-flexibility. We do not neglect hidden manifestations of real change, as when chains of seeming repetitions lead to transformation. We dwell on the amazing bag of tricks for self-deceit available to organizations and governance systems, as well as on the pallet of rarely discussed adaptation mechanisms. We pay attention to learning, which exists in many forms and sites, and can instill flexibility and enable change. Furthermore, we deconstruct the seeming contradiction between stability and change, as stabilization in governance is required to create change in a process of coordination. Finally, we return to the systems theoretical principle that transformation must be self-transformation in governance and that therefore the knowledge of that self, the actual, not professed, functioning of the governance system, ought to be the foundation for all transition thinking.