Weaving Complexity and Business: Engaging the Soul at Work

Citation

Hoe, S. (2001), "Weaving Complexity and Business: Engaging the Soul at Work", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 301-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2001.22.6.301.4

Today’s business organizations face rapid and unpredictable changes. Business leaders and managers are discovering that many of their previous assumptions and business models are inadequate to help them understand what is currently happening. Where managers once operated with a mechanistic model of the world, which is based on linear thinking, control and predictability, they now find themselves struggling with something more organic and non‐linear, where limited control and a restricted ability to predict are the order of the day. The command and control style of work that has worked so well in the past are now being overtaken by the need for a more organic, non‐linear way of working. Business leaders and managers now need a new working model to help them anticipate change in an increasingly complex and uncertain environment.

In their book, Lewin and Regine offer a solution to this challenge and reveal a powerful way of thinking about work in the new economy through complexity science. Complexity science is a new scientific theory that attempts to explain the nature of order and chaos. This new way of thinking recognizes that organizations are complex adaptive systems that can adapt and evolve in response to the complex environment. Management practices that are guided by complexity science will lead to a highly human‐oriented approach to business that not only brings greater purpose and fulfilment to people’s lives but also steers organizations to greater financial success. This is in stark contrast to the traditional view of people and organizations as machines operating in a linear and predictable environment.

The structure of the book is divided into three parts. In Part One, Lewin and Regine introduce the ideas and principles from the new science in the context of complex adaptive systems as they relate to the business world. There is a brief overview of the history of management theory, principally to show why something is needed in the new economy, and to show why complexity science might be something new, which can expand rather than simply replace existing business models. The authors explain that complex adaptive systems are composed of a diversity of agents that interact with each other, mutually affect each other, and in so doing generate emergent behaviours for the system as a whole. In human organizations, this translates into agents as people and interactions with mutual effect as being relationships. Grounding complexity science in organizational dynamics, the authors write that the source of creativity and adaptability in organizations is through connections and interactions. It is the strength of connections and the quality of relationships among its people, at all levels, that enable a healthy organization to function, particularly when faced with uncertainty and change.

In Part Two, stories of people from the various organizations that Lewin and Regine have talked to are presented. To be read with the principles of complexity in mind, these narratives tell of what people as individuals and teams do instead of what organizations as a whole do. The narratives of the people’s experiences within these organizations serve as a source of validation for the study of complexity science and to illustrate the authors’ points of view. Some of the world‐class organizations mentioned in this part include DuPont, Monsanto, St Luke’s and VeriFone.

Part Three analyzes the common pattern of behaviour the authors found among the highlighted organizations. In the discussion, Lewin and Regine identify three common practices for a different way of working and being: paradoxical leadership, emergent teams and relational practice. Taken together, these practices offer guidance to leaders to think differently about their work and navigate their organizations through change and nurture a culture that accepts change better. Leaders and managers cannot control their organizations to the degree that mechanistic perspective implies; but they can influence where their organization is going, and how it evolves through relationships. Relationships not in terms of networking but genuine relationships based on care, concern and trust.

Overall, this is a highly practical and original work that brings together seamlessly the theory of complexity science and business in practice. It offers a guide on how people can embrace complexity in their workplace. It is suitable and recommended for the transformational leader who wishes to develop a new humanistic approach to influencing change through people that benefits the bottom line.