If Organisations are Complex...

I wanted to share some of the findings from my dissertation from MSc with Roffey Park...

For the paper, I explored what it means for consultants to hold a lens that organisations are complex in their work.

MY REASONING FOR THIS...

My interest in this topic stemmed from my experience that organisations are not how I had grown up thinking of them as linear or mechanical. And if this is not the case, what are they? As a practitioner, I was curious about what this meant for the prescribed models, binary comparisons and stepped processes that filled textbooks and articles.

I wanted to understand complexity better too. I had found it hard to grasp as a field, like a mystery protected by smoke and mirrors! I was curious to see if I could make sense of it (hello ego!) AND find a way to bring complexity alive in my practice, creating ways for clients to engage with complexity without feeling overwhelmed.

Undertaking what turned out to be a Covid MSc - the sell that the World is inherently uncertain and complex, seemed much easier!

THE APPROACH?

Following a significant period of researching complexity, I undertook a Cooperative Inquiry with a group of consultants who held expertise in this field to explore what complexity means to their practice before writing my paper. I hadn't anticipated (naively) how much 'stuff' I carry that informed my struggle with this topic.?

The cooperative inquiry and the dissertation write up process pulled lots of levers. The rigour of Self Managed Learning and the learning set environment means people see you warts and all! My set challenged me to explore how I conceived complexity, continually pushing my understanding, enabling me to make greater sense of the subject and, critically important to my practice, how I related to the topic. The cooperative inquiry process was rich in sense-making and created for me an analogy which I termed the music of complexity, where we explored its notes, timbre and cadence. This allowed me to begin to connect and feel complexity in a different way.

SOME EARLY INSIGHTS

We deal with complexity every day. Seemingly, however, in organisations, we make it harder for ourselves...?That is partly due to how we construct our ideas about what an organisation is, how they should run and what that means for the way we think we should behave in them! This discrepancy hinders us in what we pay attention to and how we show up and engage.?

In reality, we have many of the skills and ways of being to better support ourselves to manage complexity. And the linear box models we seek for security and answers can actually counter our success!?

ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY??

I'd like to share a client story that I explored in my paper. The work supported the transformation of how a group worked together because they explored some of the complexity and dynamics they were getting stuck in and had the opportunity to make sense.

Newsflash - although the approach felt different, they had the tools already to make it a success!

Client Story - Thesis Exert?

I want to reflect on a recent experience with a group in Manchester. This experience highlights the importance of intuition and the power of exploring through conversation. For context, the event was to support a newly acquired part of the client's business to work effectively with three other disparate areas around a recently evolved, highly complicated process.??

The experience, for me, highlights the importance as a facilitator of paying attention to somatics and intuition. The insight to explore identity came like a flash, centring in my chest as a warmth. I encouraged them to explore their new identity as a group. There was uncertainty from the group around the concept and its relevance. I held my intuition rather than rushing out; I probed them to go deeper. The group ended up creating an identity metaphor around the game Downfall. They were the central cog whose placing and position impacted the wider interconnected groups. They could play with this metaphor and their dynamics and connections differently.

Academically this links to what Stacey's work on Complex Responsive Processes would define as social processes. In their exploration of their identity, the group made their sense of self, norms, and values more apparent and saw their interdependencies. Being in dialogue around their patterns and connections supported a shift in their awareness and created new knowledge and understanding.?

Defining their identity led to discussions around their different understandings of their dynamics and inter-relationships. Their checkout comments centred on connection, confidence, and possibility. Making these elements explicit has transformed how they work together, what they understand of each other and how they engage in challenges.??Now six months later, checking in with their CEO, the group has transformed; the comment was 'I'm not sure what you did!'

If you are interested in this topic - please reach out; I am keen to create further conversations and connections with people around complexity and explore how we make it accessible.

I will share some of my findings over a series of blogs here on LI. If you want me to notify you of them, please comment below or PM me.