Chapter 1 The New Complexity Landscape FROM INTRICATE TO INTERWOVEN T ake a good look around the next time you open your smart- phone. With a single tap, you can summon a ride that arrives within minutes, initiate a video call with colleagues across the globe, or purchase an item that will arrive at your doorstep tomorrow. What makes these seemingly simple actions possible is not merely com- plicated—it is profoundly complex. When Johan Roos and I wrote the original edition of this book, we distinguished between the complicated and the complex. The complicated consists of many intricate parts that can be folded together ( plic in Latin means "fold"). The complex consists of elements woven together ( plex in Latin means "weave"). We used the example of a local dairy farm versus the airline transportation system. A flat tire on a dairy truck might incon- venience a few customers, but it doesn't affect the food markets of a major city. By contrast, weather delays at a hub airport like Chicago O'Hare can disrupt the entire national air transport system for days. Today, that distinction has become even more profound. The digital transformation of our economy hasn't just made our systems more compli- cated—more folded together—it has fundamentally altered how they're
5
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease