Systemic Practice and Complexity
We daily experience the complexites of modern working life, with all its challenges and opportunities. We are finding that governance and control through hierarchical organisation charts, detailed strategies and linear plans, no longer provide the required results. It is becoming clear that in order to optimise our inherent potential and leverage opportunities, we need a different mind-set, a different language and approach.
Systemic thinking and practice, are based on systemic ideas, inspired by the interdependent interaction between elements in nature. It is about emphasising the collaborative, relational processes that also takes place between people and that influences dialogue, attitudes, and actions. Through systemic practice we can navigate complexity more easily.
It is about understanding our mutual interdependence in a larger perspective, rather than protecting and emphasising our independence. The whole becomes more important than the parts. Processes trumph five-year plans, connection instead of separation, context instead of normative, self-organising teams rather than hierarchical structures.
In a systemic approach, change is accepted as a natural and continuous process, and we do not seek to return to things how they once were. Navigating change and complexity is key to organisational survival. To work with complexity and change, it is crucial to foster the ability to mobilise different positions, thoughts and values in a constructive way. In the process of exploring our inherent truths and challenging the logic on which we base our lives, we can use the Wheel of Systemic Ideas.
