This workshop debuted at Australasian Change Days in Sept 2021.
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Complexity is one attribute of the renowned fearsome foursome of VUCA, and it alone can easily generate the other three: volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity.
Typically we have a deep desire to find a single solution to a problem, an answer we can ‘take to the bank’ and ‘hang our hat on’. Clear answers equate to security. A problem with a clear answer can be planned for, met with, and controlled.
Square hole… meet square peg.
Hunger… meet hamburger.
Thirst… meet coke.
Nail… meet hammer.
But complex (‘wicked’) problems have no one cause, no simple solution, no ‘smoking gun’, no ‘one size fits all’.
Reducing complexity to the ‘bed’ of habitual/rote reactions or precious theories or ideologies results in a ‘Procrustean Bed’ effect: the problem is truncated or stretched to tortuously ‘fit’ our own pre-designated solution, and this ‘torturing’ of the problem actually makes it much worse.
Rotting foundations and crumbling brickwork… meet cheap vinyl siding.
COVID… meet Q-Anon.
Pain… meet opioids.
A feedback loop kicks in:
Simple solutions applied to complex problems generates still greater complexity…
Greater complexity generates overwhelming uncertainty…
Overwhelming uncertainty generates primitive and rote fight/flight/freeze reactions…
Primitive reactions to complex problems generates more complexity…
And so on…
Complexity offers a multiplicity of possibilities, rather than one direction forward*.
It requires an ongoing agility, flexibility and malleability of response, rather than a fateful lunge of commitment.
It requires a plethora and diversity of information sources rather than one clear conduit.
It requires a collaborative organisation of ongoing response, rather than a command and control directive structure.
In this workshop we’re not (I’m very sorry) going to find ‘fixes’** for complex problems.
What we will do is explore and observe – with basic kindness and good humour – how we experience complexity and overwhelm, and how we react to them with our own rotes and rites and reels. Then we’ll contemplate the nature of ‘poise’: a flexible responsiveness centred around balance and equilibrium, a stance of readiness. And then we’ll consider behaviours and practises that can strengthen our capacity to bear with the uncertainty of complexity by cultivating and maintaining ‘poise’.
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* The “Get ‘er done” imperative (Note the interesting gender inflection here. The problem or job is feminine. LOL! The feminine is complex, and the notion that you can “get ‘er done” will likely result in greater complexity!).
**Complexity doesn’t respond well to quick fixes. It’s interesting to note that a common parlance for addicts seeking relief is that they want their ‘fix’. A perfect example of a simple short-term solution leading to long term complexity.