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Adventures in Complexity  
For organisations near the edge of chaos
Lesley Kuhn

A complexity approach removes simplistic hopes of an ordered and controllable existence where, if only we had the right ‘keys’ or ‘tools’, we would be able to fashion a successful organisation. Instead, it offers a way to identify underlying patterns of order and indicators for influencing future sustainable practice; it shows how simple recurrent rules result in complex behaviour and that ‘influential interventions’ do not take a neat cause-and-effect path but may generate unexpected outcomes.

Adventures in Complexity is not so much about organisations as about the ‘life of organisations’. Lesley Kuhn sees organisations as ‘collectives of human activity’ and, in this book, shows how complexity theory can be applied in and to organisations.

Complexity theory says that people are self-organising, dynamic, emergent beings who are capable of discerning thoughtfulness and innovative responses to change both within and between organisations. It argues that sustainability is best served by tapping into this entire pool of potential.

It embraces uncertainty and change, using terms like non-equilibrium and turbulence to show that, when systems reach ‘the edge of chaos’, they are most likely to exhibit creative, innovative responses and new patterns and structures are most likely to emerge. In the current unpredictable climate many organisations may consider themselves 'near the edge of chaos'. Yet most will not realise that this is where the greatest potential for success lies.

Lesley Kuhn introduces the principles of complexity theory in a clear and accessible way, discussing the ideas and metaphors that are most useful in understanding organisational life. This provides an excellent foundation from which to apply these principles to organisations and much of the book is dedicated to complexity in practice.

Seven case studies, from a not-for-profit to a large pharmaceutical company, examine this way of thinking and the application of complexity metaphors.

  • fitness landscape – the need for an organisation to act coherently within its wider environment
  • communicative connectedness – organisations can be seen as existing through conversations between all participants and the nature and quality of those interconnections is critical
  • sensitive dependence on initial conditions – often referred to as the butterfly effect – small differences to the initial conditions of an organisation can have dramatically disproportionate consequences to the sustainability of the organisation
  • edge of chaos-chaotic edge – edge of chaos thinking allows organisations to handle change effectively and develop new strategic directions as they flexibly encounter new situations and opportunities; chaotic edge thinking is where organisations perceive themselves to be under threat rather than full of potential, and retreat to rules-based behaviour
  • attractors – the energies that motivate us in our work; to be aware of and to understand these enables managers to constructively review work practices
  • fractality – thinking fractally means recognising that the global and the local are embedded in all levels of social practice.
The book has guidance on how to use complexity – including questions that are useful as a starting point for an inquiry, and an action list for managers  wanting to get started.

Read more:

About the author
Reviews
Preface

Readership

For leaders, managers, and everyone who works in or for an organisation, here at last is a straight-forward and immediately practical way of applying what may seem like a complicated theory.

For academics, researchers and students who may be theorising in a vacuum, this is a much-needed book to show how complexity theory can be translated into the workplace.