Newsletter #3: It's Not Complicated-

–It’s Actually Complex.

Western culture often models our understanding of the world in mechanical cause-and-effect frameworks.  Issac Newton and the Industrial Revolution influenced us to see our minds and organizations like so many machines -a series of parts working together to create a result.  That thinking has helped us overcome enormous challenges. Generally, we can comfortably concentrate large numbers of people in urban and suburban areas, provide them ready access to food, keep their poop separated from their drinking water, and safely manage the flow of goods and people around town or around the globe.

Generations of building successful solutions to complicated problems has lured us into applying similar logic to most problems we face as organizations.  But so many of the problems we wrestle with now are complex.  What’s the difference?

Complicated problems have known, predictable parts with linear interactions. Complex problems have unpredictable parts with non-linear interactions.  

A diesel engine is complicated: hundreds of parts all work together in synchronization.  You can change the inputs -fuel and air- or swap a part -bigger turbo -and get a change in output.  The results are understood and predictable.  

Raising a child is complex.  We can probably agree upon the basics of providing a safe and loving environment for our kids, but how we teach them, interact with them, and help them navigate their challenges differs significantly for each of us as parents. And our own kids raised in the same environment will respond differently to very similar circumstances (my ongoing lesson as a parent of twins). 

The table below breaks down some additional differences:

Descriptor	Complicated	Complex
How Parts Interact	Cause and Effect.	Relationships (and quality of them)
Variables	Can be Isolated	Not always visible. Difficult to Isolate.
Influence of Bias	Limited	Significant
Role of Experts	One or two experts can diagnose and fix problems	Demands that many people collaborate. Non-expert,  outlier perspectives may have as much value as experts.
Structure	Built.  Change the structure to change the outputs.	Parts of the system may be built, but others are adaptive and self-organizing
Best Practices	Known	Evolving, Situationally Dependent
Problems	Visible. Easily diagnosed	May be visible but require learning to fully understand
Solutions	Known. Can be solved.	Evolving. Not easily solved, requires ongoing navigation and leadership.
Solutions	May require changing parts or processes.	More likely to require changing minds (our own more than we think).

The intersections of social and natural systems around agriculture and the environment are highly complex.  So are many of the problems. 

Navigating complexity requires a mindset shift

A wonderful metaphor for complexity thinking comes from Becca Krantz at Many Stones Consulting:

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle where you have some pieces that don’t belong, some of the pieces you have to go on massive scavenger hunts to find, and you build it partially by trial and error, and the later by intuition because there’s no box with a picture to guide you.” 

What complex challenges have you been trying to solve as if they’re complicated?

More to follow.  For now, enjoy discovering how pieces fit together.

Find A Way,

Ryan

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