The Next Next Common Sense
capabilities and structures appropriate for your organization’s unique con- text, purpose, and complexity frontiers. Several principles can guide this journey: Start Where You Are: Building a complexity-adapted organization doesn’t require wholesale transformation. Begin by identifying specific areas where complexity creates challenges or opportunities for your orga- nization, and develop targeted capabilities to address these areas. A manufacturing company began its journey by focusing on sup- ply chain resilience—a specific complexity frontier that posed signifi- cant challenges. The capabilities and approaches they developed in this domain—scenario planning, network thinking, adaptive coordina- tion—provided a foundation they later extended to other aspects of the organization. Balance Stability and Dynamism: Effective navigation of complex- ity requires both stability and dynamism. Too much stability creates ri- gidity that prevents adaptation; too much dynamism creates chaos that prevents coherent action. The key is finding the appropriate balance for your specific context. A technology company implementing this principle identified core elements that provided stability—shared purpose, ethical principles, key relationships—while creating dynamic capabilities for areas that required continuous adaptation—product development, market positioning, talent models. This balanced approach enabled them to remain coherent while continuously evolving. Develop Complexity Intelligence: Just as organizations invest in developing specialized capabilities like technical expertise or market in- telligence, coherent organizations deliberately develop complexity in- telligence—the capacity to perceive, understand, and navigate complex systems. A professional services firm created a “complexity leadership pro- gram” that developed capabilities in systems thinking, sensemaking in uncertainty, adaptive management, and collaborative problem-solving.
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