FUOPRDEAWT OE DR DE DT IOT TI OHNE When Michael Lissack and Johan Roos published The Next Common Sense over twenty years ago, they were ahead of their time. They recognized that the world was transitioning from merely complicated to genuinely com- plex, and that this transition would fundamentally change how businesses operate. They understood that in a world of interwoven relationships and interdependencies, the command-and-control approach to management would become increasingly ineffective. Today, their insights seem prophetic. We now inhabit a digital land- scape where complexity has not only intensified but accelerated. The technological revolution has compressed time and space, creating con- nections that would have been unimaginable in the late 1990s. Artificial intelligence, remote work, platform economics, social media, and the blur- ring of industry boundaries have created a business environment that makes the complexity Lissack and Roos described seem almost quaint by comparison. Yet remarkably, the fundamental principles they articulated have proven extraordinarily resilient. Their core distinction between com- plicated systems (with many parts that can be “folded” together) and complex systems (with elements “woven” together in intricate patterns) has become even more essential as organizations struggle to navigate interconnected challenges. Their advocacy for coherence—alignment of context, viewpoint, purpose, and action—has been validated as more critical than technical expertise in navigating uncertainty.
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