| Developing Leaders in a VUCA Environment |
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman notes that the rate of change today is much different than in the past. “Whenever civilization has gone through one of these disruptive, dislocating technical revolutions—like Gutenberg’s introduction of the printing press—the whole world has changed in profound ways… |
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| Complex Social Systems: Rising Complexity in Business Environments |
Attempts to simulate the effects of environmental complexity changes in business yielded the realization that much exploratory work needs to be done to (a) demonstrate that complexity has increased universally, and (b) to elucidate what contributory factors are at work in this environment. |
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| Leading In a Complex World |
The world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace and these changes are not just radical they are transformative; transforming every aspect of our lives and transforming boundaries between and within markets. Whilst we can’t explore everything in this article here are some of the big ones that we think have major implications for leaders. Technologies are disrupting sectors and even whole industries faster than ever. |
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| New Tools For Resolving Wicked Problems |
Wicked Problems (equivalently, Social Messes) are seemingly intractable problems. They are composed of inter-related dilemmas, issues, and other problems at multiple levels society, economy, and governance. These interconnections—systems of systems—make Wicked Problems so resilient to analysis and to resolution. |
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| Sense-making in a complex and complicated world |
In this paper, we challenge the universality of three basic assumptions prevalent in organizational decision support and strategy: assumptions of order, of rational choice, and of intent. We describe the Cynefin framework, a sense-making device we have developed to help people make sense of the complexities made visible by the relaxation of these assumptions. |
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| Tools for Complex Projects |
Nearly all large and many small projects exhibit characteristics of complexity. Nevertheless projects of all sizes continue to be managed using linear thinking strategies based on project management traditions that go back to the building of the great pyramids in Egypt during the third millennium BCE, when societies and workgroups were arranged hierarchically. |
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| Complexity and Limits to Knowledge |
This paper examines how complexity science faces up to the material fact of uncertainty and the very real limits to knowledge. Indeed it shows how ignorance, the impossibility of having full knowledge and the inevitability of uncertainty, are both the result of, and the driving force behind, evolution and change. |
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| The Sage Handbook of Complexity and Management |
The first substantive scholarly work to provide a map of the state-of-the-art research in the growing field emerging at the intersection of complexity science and management studies. Edited and written by internationally respected scholars from management and related disciplines, the Handbook is a reference source for understanding the implications of complexity science for management research and practice. |
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| Decision Theory in Complex Systems |
Human beings are continuously making conscious decisions. Life is a stream of decisions made on a continuum from the subconscious to the fully involved conscious state. Many decisions are made “without thinking�? as when we have driven our car to a destination and realize that we were not aware of the actions we were taking to maneuver the automobile. |
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| Managing in an Age of Complexity |
From a psychological perspective, it seems that most people prefer certainty to ambiguity and, it seems, would even choose certainty over freedom. In business, certainty suggests we can predict what is going on in our market place and with this information we believe we can then develop the optimal strategy for making money. |
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| A Brief Review of Systems Theories and Their Managerial Applications |
Systems theory is an interdisciplinary theory about every system in nature, in society and in many scientific domains as well as a framework with which we can investigate phenomena from a holistic approach. Systems thinking comes from the shift in attention from the part to the whole, considering the observed reality as an integrated and interacting unicum of phenomena where the individual properties of the single parts become indistinct. |
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| Complexity Science as a New Strategic Tool |
At the dawn of the new millennium, the business environment is undergoing unprecedented rapid and radical change. The new economy, driven by globalization and the exponential growth of the Internet, is forcing firms to re-evaluate not only their strategies, but also their entire belief systems. |
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| Applications of Complexity Science for Public Policy |
Government officials and other decision makers increasingly encounter a daunting class of problems that involve systems composed of very large numbers of diverse interacting parts. These systems are prone to surprising, large-scale, seemingly uncontrollable, behaviors. These traits are the hallmarks of what scientists call complex systems. |
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| Guide to Influencing Complex Systems |
Today’s leaders act within yesterday’s decision-making structures, but in an age where we are increasingly aware of, and challenged by, the interconnected nature of our world. Decision-making happens at local, national and organizational levels, but the effects are truly global. |
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| Making Sense of the Collaborative Economy |
The collaborative economy is becoming difficult to ignore; it is undeniably a global movement that dominates news with tales of startup glory and threats of government responses to industry disruption. Whether people associate their activities with this specific term or not, this report shows that a quarter of the UK population… |
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