1/ I recently read Complexity and I’ve come to realise that any effort to improve the world is complex.
I think it’s because of the interconnectedness of the world. Solving one problem generally gives rise to another.
Conversation
Replying to
Keagan, what's your take on the idea that organizations are complex adaptive systems mostly managed through processes and approaches suited to complicated systems?
In other words, seeking predictability (KPIs, forecasts, budgets) through an unpredictable (complex) organization.
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Replying to
Good question, I hadn't thought about this much until now.
My experience in organisations is limited and I suspect that this changes a lot from org to org, but the idea organisations of trying to manage complexity through well-known and understood processes make sense to me.
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Complexity is uncomfortable because leads to emergent behaviour that we don't fully understand. That's a tough position to be in when you're being paid to either explain why something is happening, or to reproduce it.
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Attaching processes and approaches suited to complicated systems might help counteract that, mainly because it means following a path that is well-defined and understood, but I think it can also place a ceiling on what you're trying to do.
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I think a better approach is the one described here (commoncog.com/blog/learning-) by which is based on introducing practices, observing how they impact the organisation, and then iterating based on your observations.
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(I also think will have a very very good answer to this question that I would love to hear. )
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Hmm, I’m not sure what I can say here that I haven’t already said in
