Mastering complexity in knowledge work with inherent simplicity
This chapter is not about complexity in the world in general. Rather it is about how complexity affects us in the world of knowledge work, with a focus on adding value to our customers.?
There are two critical concepts we must understand before learning how to master complexity in knowledge work. The first is that our real problem is complexity at all. It’s non-linearity. Non-linearity is when a small occurrence results in a large outcome. Some famous examples of non-linearity are:
What’s important to recognize is that non-linearity can occur in simple, complicated and complex systems. But virtually all disasters have it present.
In “Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It”, the authors explain that disasters typically occur due to a combination of small errors, coupled with other events that can cascade, a lack of visibility to see what’s happening and the inability to fix the problem either because it is invisible or there is something preventing us from doing so.
The way out of this danger is to avoid the cascading errors by creating visibility and enabling corrective action when needed. This requires quick feedback as well as an understanding of the relationships between the actions being taken.
An understanding of systems thinking is essential here. One of the main tenets of systems thinking is that a system is defined more by the relationships between its components than by its components themselves. These relationships can be considered simple (readily understandable), complicated (a combination of many factors that can be perceived), or complex (can’t be understood prior to showing themselves).
Almost any relationship can result in a non-linear event.?
Working with simple and complicated relationships is straightforward. Our risk, of course is that we don’t see the complexity in the system. The trick is to make it so when a complex relationship threatens to damage us we can expose it quickly, before significant damage is done.
Dr Eli Goldratt introduced the idea of Inherent Simplicity which states that “reality, any part of reality, is governed by very few elements, and that any existing conflict can be eliminated. If we take that as a given, as absolutely correct in every situation, we'll find ourselves thinking clearly.” He goes further to explain that if “If we dive deep enough, we’ll find that there are very few elements at the base—the root causes—which through cause-and-effect connections are governing the whole system.”?
In knowledge work these elements are the First Principles of Knowledge work.?
This provides us with an alternate view of sense-making by determining what kind of environment we’re in by not looking at what state we’re in but by what kind of relationships are present. Those who do this are looking at our state and often add chaos and discord it as other states.
This comparison is shown below:
The challenge with looking at domains as a sense-making approach is that it ignores that danger lurks in both simple and complicated environments.
When we approach sense-making by attending to the relationships present and have identified the first principles of knowledge work, other possibilities are possible. We can use these to create improvement. We can avoid disaster via quick feedback to create visibility. We can create frequent opportunities to take advantage of this to avoid the non-linearity that would otherwise ensure. We avoid the cascading events that lead to a “meltdown” as earlier described.
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It also changes how we look at the world. When we think we’re in a complex domain we feel disempowered because there is a sense we can’t do anything about complexity – it will just show its face when it does. The situation appears to be worse than it is.
An added advantage of this approach (getting quick feedback) is that this also eliminates the creation of waste and is something we need to be doing in any event.
How to move forward
What this tells us is to move forward with what we can see and to use feedback to protect ourselves from the risks of what we can’t. Violating first principles is going to cause damage, if not globally, at least locally, and definitely emotionally. As we align our actions with first principles we either improve or learn what else we need to do.
In other words, we want to take action using what we know (the simple and complicated) while avoiding the risks of what we don't know (complexity and non-linearity).
In summary
Systems are defined by the relationships between their components.
We can use inherent simplicity to see most of these.
We can use feedback to discern when something we don’t see is occurring.
Feedback coupled with an ability to respond can mitigate the dangers of complexity in knowledge work.
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