Following on from our previous post, let us start this one with another short story to illustrate the principles of our first complexity cheat: Three adventurers competed in a race through a very wild jungle to prove who is the best of them. The first brought a map and compass, the second a machete, but…Continue Reading “Complexity Cheat #01: Into the Jungle -The Art of Honest Observation”
Now that we have excessively moaned about the challenges the rise of complexity in our organizational life is creating for hard-working executives, let’s talk about how to deal with it! The bad news is you will rarely find straight forward solutions to complex problems. As soon as an issue is messy, trying to solve it…Continue Reading “‘Complexity Cheats’ – A Hot-wire Toolkit for Cracking Complex Challenges”
In the first three parts of our series on complexity we have focused primarily on framing what we mean when we talk about complexity and we have begun exploring the demands increasing complexity poses on leaders and senior executives. In this fourth part of the series we will start to look into the particular capabilities…Continue Reading “Stretching Your Thinking to Manage Greater Complexity”
Just recently a friend who is familiar with our work on helping companies to better cope with complex challenges remarked jokingly: ‘Lucky you, being a complexity specialist allows you to get all your kids to all the right places roughly at the right time!’ ‘Well’, I equally jokingly replied,’ that’s just operational complexity. You should…Continue Reading “Stepping Up: How Work Complexity Expands By Organizational Level”