Cohesion conquers complexity
Fragmented organisations will fail in an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable world
“There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes, the danger must be growing
'Cause the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing..!” — Roald Dahl 1
Someone recently pointed out that I don’t focus much on “complexity” in the creation of future-fit organisational cultures of innovation, agility, and adaptiveness.
Reflecting on their observation, the reason I don’t focus explicitly on complexity is that it’s always implicitly present in and around every organisation.
This was and is especially true for the kind of high-tech organisations where I began my future-fit culture work in the late 1980’s.
The reason I don’t focus on the complexities of complexity is that when people work together cohesively, they collectively take complexity in their stride.2
Complexity came into focus as the acronym “VUCA” caught on, popularised by the US Army War College for describing the Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity they perceived as the Cold War abated in the late 1980’s. 3
Why did complexity catch on more than volatility, uncertainty, or ambiguity?
Probably because there weren’t many volatility theorists, uncertainty theorists, or ambiguity theorists — placing complexity theorists in pole position as “VUCA” entered the organisational discourse.
Whilst this was good news for complexity theorists, it isn’t much use to real-world organisations, largely due to the complexity of complexity theorists’ theories.
Strange attractors, phase space, and other obtuse concepts of interest to academics and other intellectuals are deeply impractical for the vast majority of plain-speaking people in organisations who must develop the innovation, agility, and adaptiveness muscles to thrive in an increasingly VUCA world.4
It’s a lot more practical for people to appreciate that no-one ever has a monopoly on wisdom, that none of us is as smart as all of us, and that all of us can learn from others who see aspects of reality that we don’t yet see.
As people grasp this reality, they become cohesive communities with future-fit cultures that conquer Volatility, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity and take Complexity in their stride. 5
Uncertainty and Unpredictability
As they continue to encounter ever more volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity, people in organisations are experiencing exponentially increasing levels of stress.
Nowhere is this more keenly felt than by senior executives who remain caught in the legacy trap of seeing their role as making decisions.6
Increased volatility means you can’t decide what to do long-term, but must instead innovate, act, and adapt on a continuous, never-ending basis.7
Increased uncertainty means you can’t decide up front where to commit significant attention, energy, and resources but must try things out in the real world, learn, rinse and repeat. 8
Increased ambiguity means you can’t make decisions in isolation, but must engage in collective, ongoing sense making, decision making, and action taking with colleagues throughout the whole organisation. 9
Unless and until these issues are addressed systemically, organisational stresses will continue to increase until they reach breaking point.
I’ve described key aspects of how to go about creating a cohesive future-fit culture of innovation, agility, and adaptiveness in various previous articles:
How 2D3D mindsets are the beating heart of any such culture; 10
Why the role of senior executives is not making decisions but creating conditions in which good decisions get made, implemented, and iterated; 11
How an organisation’s culture is not its “shared values” but the system of mindsets forming and informing people's awareness of the way we do things around here; 12
How culture forms — and can be reformed — via the seven channels of culture; 13
How to gain maximum leverage for systemic, organisation-wide cultural transformation. 14
Cohesive future-fit cultures depend on, and develop, deeper, richer relationships than in a past in which human beings were constrained, contained, and crippled by tasks, boundaries, and metrics that treat them as cogs in an organisational machine.
When senior executives focus instead on creating conditions that cultivate 2D3D mindsets, people flourish, work more cohesively and collectively, and are able to take complexity in their stride.
It’s only when a few individuals persist in hogging sense making and decision making, handing off action taking to those further down a command and control hierarchy, that organisations end up entangled in, and engulfed by, complexity.
A future-fit culture emerges from, and in turn enables, repeatedly iterated cycles of making enough sense to make enough of a decision to take enough action in the world.
The action taken in the world then reveals new insights that make sense in richer, more cohesive ways, increasing confidence to commit further resources to take action on the next iteration of sense making, decision making, and action taking.
It’s by building up these organisational muscles in practice that sense making, decision making, and action taking become tightly coupled, rapidly and repeatedly iterated, deeply embedded and widely distributed throughout the organisation, creating a future-fit culture that takes complexity in its stride.
Questions for reflection
Do the senior executives in your organisation still see their role as making decisions, or have they realised that their role is creating conditions in which good decisions get made, implemented, and iterated throughout the whole organisation?
Do people throughout the organisation feel free to make enough sense to make enough of a decision to take enough action in the real world? Or do they feel trapped in the legacy obligation to justify every action with comprehensive up front analysis?
Is your organisation future-fit, or is it buckling under exponentially increasing stress due to outdated ways of thinking, doing, seeing, and being that are unfit for an uncertain and unpredictable world?
Willie Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Pg. 84-85 (1964)
For example, pushing the boundaries of physics, chemistry, biotech etc. and combining them in complex ways to create new value, trading off multi-dimensional interrelated and intertwined factors such as size, mass, volume, speed, power consumption, amidst constantly changing markets, customer expectations, competitive dynamics.
The VUCA acronym originated in the work of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, with the U.S. Army War College introducing the concept in 1987. I use the term abated as opposed to ended since arguably Cold War perceptions returned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Of course it’s not counterproductive to the complexity theorists, writers, and consultants who’ve found ways to make a good living from bamboozling people…
There are dedicated followers of various complexity theorists but I’ve yet to see any substantive evidence of achievement of sustained shifts to future-fit mindsets, attitudes, and behaviours in real-world organisations.
See the previous article From Strategy to Sense Making.
See the previous article Focus for results.
See the previous article Decisions that don’t make sense.
See the previous article Unlocking the innovative mindset.
See the previous article The toxic myth of 'culture as shared values'.
See the previous article The seven channels of culture.
See the previous article Leverage for systemic change.