Michael Lissack
Multi-capital value creation. The narrow focus on financial capital is expanding to encompass multiple forms of capital—social, intellectual, natural, human, manufactured. Organizations that develop capabilities for measuring, managing, and creating value across these multiple dimen- sions will likely outperform those with narrower conceptions of value. Embodied complexity navigation. Perhaps the most important frontier is the development of not just conceptual but embodied capabili- ties for navigating complexity—ways of sensing, responding, and learning that become integrated into organizational culture and individual practice rather than remaining abstract concepts. Conclusion: From Next to Now In 1999, complex systems thinking represented “the next common sense”—an emerging paradigm that challenged traditional management approaches. Today, this perspective has become essential for effective organization in a world where complexity is not the exception but the rule. Yet the journey toward mastering complexity is far from complete. The capabilities required continue to evolve as new complexity frontiers emerge. Organizations that develop robust approaches to creating coher- ence amid complexity—not by simplifying it away but by developing the capacity to navigate it with wisdom, adaptability, and purpose—will be best positioned to thrive in the decades ahead. The next common sense has, in many ways, become today’s common sense. But the journey continues, with new frontiers calling us toward what might be called “the next next common sense”—approaches to orga- nization that integrate human and technological intelligence, regenerate rather than deplete, distribute rather than concentrate, and create value across multiple dimensions rather than optimizing for narrow metrics. As we navigate these emerging frontiers, the fundamental insights that have endured from the original work will continue to serve as valu- able guides: focus on coherence rather than control, respect diverse men- tal models, use simple guiding principles, tell meaningful stories, and
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