Why Complicated and Complex Clash
In the complicated domain we have an illusion of predictability, a projection forward in time of events yet to happen architected in either the current or past, a snapshot of activities and a state with an associated benefit.
In the complex world we have flow, failure, exaptation and adaptation, like nature taking the path of least resistance, electricity through a piece of wood, everything connected, out of our control. Thriving in the complex domain takes small achievable goals, experiments, adaptability and a focus on whats needed in the current moment rather than adherence to a design of the future coming from a past when we knew less than we know now, the only instant we can make a difference.
As these two paradigms collide anxieties emerge from trying to control the uncontrollable and guess the unguessable. There is a reasoned explanation as to why these uncomfortable emotions surface, an obvious argument for the elimination of them and some practical things that can be done to get rid of them.
Worry is caused as our minds drift into the future and get pulled into the past which are the very foundations of Gantt, happiness comes from living in the moment. The complicated world throws a shadow like a dark cloud of negativity, restricting autonomy, creativity, quality and innovation. In an ethical sense if we have a more effective means of working by being equanimous in the present, then our practices should be the inverse of this Tayloristic paradigm.
In a game of billiards to predict the outcome on the trajectory of the 9th collision of the balls you would need to factor in the gravitational pull of the players surrounding the table, by the time you get to the fifty-sixth impact you would need to factor in every particle in the universe (1). Humans aren’t a production line they are scaled complexity from their cells and inner workings to the wider world around them and their many millions of interactions in a day.
With that in mind what chance can there be of predicting into the future to any level of accuracy without overtly or covertly changing the initial parameters of success. The propensity for pressure caused by the anxiety of thoughts forced into another time erodes a true measure of achievement, quality. The real enabler for responsiveness in a complex environment.
Quality isn’t a state that can be reached through a definition in the past it is achieved through a process of continuous improvement and measured daily against its baseline from the start of that day. The future vision is maintained and refreshed, flow negates the need for stressful and futile prediction. The environment should be thought of as a system.
Moving from the complicated to the complex domain is a painful process, you can either go with it or like a dog being dragged along by its owner fight all the way, there are some things you can control and some things you can’t. There’s no point worrying about the things you can’t, but do your best with the ones you can and measure successes daily.
- Taleb, the Black Swan p178.
