Key Aspects:

The concept of complexity in change facilitation is based on system theory applied to the social field. Whereas in everyday contexts the polarity is seen as being SIMPLE vs. COMPLICATED, COMPLEXITY is a BEHAVIOUR that can be observed also in simple systems. In complex systems the relation between cause and effect (= the system’s behaviour) is non-linear. Logical analysis of social systems such as organizations is not enough. Complex systems tend to show chaotic behaviour. That is one  reason why they are not easily manageable. The systemic approach is holistic and proved to be successful for dealing with complex systems.

Complexity may, for example, grow by increasing diversity in the stakeholder system, by growing amount and intensity of interconnections (feedback-loops) between the elements of the system, but also by growing uncertainty by changing roles or increasing role-mix of individual actors etc.

Experienced facilitators know: “People do not resist change, systems do.”

Related Skills:

·                  Identification of logical and non-logical aspects of group and organization behaviour.

·                  The principles of occidental logical thinking. Hierarchy as the social construction that manages may create and manage complicated systems, but fails with regard to complex behaviour of real social systems

·                  Examples for non-logical thinking traditions (e.g. occidental: dialectics, Gestalt-Theory and oriental: Yin-Yang thinking)

·                  Complex behaviour of organizations and institutions: functional complexity

·                  Intra-individual complexity

·                  Dealing with and separating different levels of complexity in change (Ralph Stacey and David Snowden models).

·                  Intervention design and implementation that uses logical and non-logical strategies