Complexity inside and out

Ash Buchanan
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

We live in complex times.

Stephen Hawking has called this century, ‘the century of complexity’. The moment mainstream culture awakens to the complex nature of reality. The realisation that while the universe is comprised of some controllable and predictable elements, it’s largely uncontrollable, unpredictable and emergent.

However, these contextual aspects of complexity aren’t the only aspects mainstream culture is awakening to. Many are also realising in addition to the complexity of our world, there is also complexity deep within our inner lives.

In this article, we look at why when thinking about how leaders can best navigate complexity, its valuable to consider it inside and out.

Complexity of contexts

“Truly adept leaders will know not only how to identify the context they’re working in at any given time but also how to change their behaviour and their decisions to match that context. They prepare their organizations to understand the different contexts and the conditions for transition between them.” — David Snowden and Mary Boone

One of our favourite ways for navigating complexity of our contexts is by using David Snowden’s Cynefin framework.

The framework describes five different contexts that are relevant to the different types of challenges we face;

  • Simple -The domain of good practice interventions. Contexts characterised by controllable, predictable, linear relationships that are obvious to everyone. The right answer is well known, self-evident and undisputed.
  • Complicated — The domain of expertise. Contexts characterised by controllable and predictable relationships that are knowable and repeatable. They are not obvious to everyone and require investigation and expertise to navigate.
  • Complex — The domain of emergence. Contexts characterised by unknown, unpredictable, uncontrollable, adaptive, interrelated and nonlinear relationships. The relationship between cause and effect is in constant flux and can only be known in retrospect. Patterns emerge from prototyping and safe to fail experiments so the path forward can reveal itself. These volatile and ambiguous contexts are best navigated with facilitation, coaching and presence based learning.
  • Chaotic — Contexts characterised by there being no knowable relationship between cause an effect. Leaders must first act to establish order, sense where stability and collective wisdom is present and respond by transforming the situation from chaos to complexity.
  • Disorder — Located in the centre, this condition applies when it is unclear which of the other four contexts is predominant.

The Cynefin framework highlights why approaches that work well in one context won’t necessarily work in another. Navigating our contexts is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. As circumstances and contexts change, so must our approach and navigation style.

Complexity of mind

“When we experience the world as “too complex” we are not just experiencing the complexity of the world. We are experiencing a mismatch between the world’s complexity and our own at this moment.” — Robert Kegan

To meet the complexity of our challenges, we also need to develop our own complexity.

From this perspective, Robert Kegan’s and Jennifer Garvey Berger’s research on complexity of mind is valuable. As our mind matures and becomes more complex, we evolve through 5 stages of sense making maturity that transcend and include each other. Healthy unfolding of each stage is necessary to provide grounding for future stages. At each progressive stage of conscious development, our identity, worldview and the way we make sense of our challenges evolves. Ideas, beliefs and values we have at one stage can seem less meaningful or simply inadequate at later stages of development.

  • Impulsive Mind — Identity and environment are fused. We have no sense of separateness.
  • Instrumental Mind — Our emerging identity is defined by meeting our physical desires.
  • Socialised Mind — Our identity is defined by the ideas and values of the culture, group or system we belong. Our self coheres by its alignment with, and loyalty to, that with which we identify. We are subject to our interpersonal relationships and mutuality and respond with individual needs, interests and desires.
  • Self-Authoring Mind — We become aware of the social environment we belong and our identity is defined by our ability to self-direct, take stands and set limits for our lives within these systems. Our self coheres by its alignment with its own belief system, ideology, or personal code. We are subject to authorship and respond with interpersonal relationships and mutuality.
  • Self-Transforming Mind — We become aware of the interrelationships between systems and respond with authorship, creative transcendence of identity and ideology. Our self coheres through its ability not to confuse internal consistency with wholeness or completeness, and through its alignment with the dialectic rather than either pole.

Greater complexity of mind doesn’t guarantee greater performance, better interpersonal skills or improved wellbeing. It means we can hold greater complexity, ambiguity and paradox within our minds, which improves our capacity to make sense of, and take a perspective on, our challenges.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust

Kegan and Berger point out that until we have experienced a later stage of development, we are typically unaware of its existence. They are invisible to us, over our heads. Its only through the process of development — and becoming more fully ourselves — that our sense making matures and we see the world anew.

What’s interesting to note is it’s typically not until late in the self-authoring stage, or early in the self-transforming stage that we become aware of complexity in our contexts and complexity in our minds. This means the ability to become conscious of, and attend to, our complex challenges, requires us to develop our own complexity.

Preparing ourselves for the century of complexity

Therefore, to best navigate our future possibilities in a complex world, it’s vital to consider the interplay between complexity in our inner lives and the complexity of our contexts.

These insights have some profound implications for 21st century education and 21st century leadership. It makes me wonder what would be possible if we had a whole generation of leaders with the context tools and the complexity of mind to navigate the great complex challenges of our day.


Benefit Mindset

Creating cultures of everyday leadership

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Ash Buchanan

Written by

Social Innovation | Benefit Mindset I Wellbeing Design I Regenerative Development

Benefit Mindset

Creating cultures of everyday leadership

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