A Brief Introduction to Complexity
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang, Ph.D. presents a brief introduction to some of the applications of chaos science to organizational development and behavior. Link
A Systemic Approach to Ending Homelessness
David Peter Stroh
Describes the system dynamics underlying Calhoun County's experience with chronic homelessness; by identifying these issues a community group was able to design a change initiative that is having lasting social impact. Link
A Systemic View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
David Peter Stroh
Examines the dynamics underlying one of the most troubling conflicts of our time and identifies the leverage points for a sustainable solution. Link
A Systems Approach to Peacebuilding
Louise Diamond
This article (PDF) explains how the work of peace building - whatever form it may take - introduces and supports systemic or holistic thinking, it is inevitably building new pathways for partnership mode. As these pathways widen and then converge, the hundredth monkey phenomenon of a critical mass shift in consciousness becomes inevitable. That shift is essential to building sustainable peace systems, and constitutes the core work of the peacebuilder. Link
A Systems View of the Economic Crisis
David Peter Stroh
Analyzes the policy implications of the current economic crisis for business and political leaders. Link
A Tale of Two Counties
Glenda Eoyang and Lois Yellowthunder
This paper (PDF) was presented by Glenda Eoyang, and Lois Yellowthunder, Ph.D., at the Complexity, Science and Society Conference in Liverpool, England, in October, 2005. Link
After the Dance with Whole Scale Change
Glenda Eoyang and Kristine Quade
Glenda Eoyang and Kristine Quade have co-authored a chapter for the book Handbook of Large-Group Methods, edited by Billy Alban and Barbara Bunker, and published by Jossey-Bass (Wiley). This wonderful book provides a wealth of information about large-group interventions and technologies. In their chapter, 'After the Dance,' Eoyang and Quade describe how the use of human systems dynamics can support an organization in maintaining the momentum to carry out the plans that emerge from large-group events. Link
Business Disaster Planning - How Ready Are You?
Jeri Denniston
Your time is valuable, but so are your company and your employees. Are you prepared should a disaster happen? Do you and your staff know what to do if a fire or flood devastates your premises? What if 30% or more of your staff are out sick due to a pandemic illness? This article will help you get prepared for such situations. Link
Creative Chaos
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang illustrates applications of some metaphors of complexity applied in the creative process. Link
Crossing Borders: Globalization and Its Impact on Corporate Cultures
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang is focused on the concept of fitness and fitness landscapes as they apply to the evolution of survival strategies for individuals and organizations. Link
Designing Initiative Evaluation
Glenda Eoyang
These are some of the many questions to consider in approaching evaluations of multi-level and multi-site bodies of work. To help answer such questions, this document outlines the approach the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) is developing for cluster and initiative evaluation and four key evaluation designs based on looking at initiatives as complex systems. Link
Employee Satisfaction Leads to Unparalleled Success
Jeri Denniston
According to Matthew Kelly in his book, The Dream Manager, "the great majority of people in the workplace today are actively disengaged. People don't feel connected to their work, the organizations they work in, or the people they work with." Companies need to find ways to reward and train employees to help them become the best they can be. In doing so, these workers stay longer and help the organization become the best it can be. With a shortage of available workers coming online in the next 10-20 years, it is ever more critical that companies start acting today to get the current generation trained and focused on helping the company achieve its future vision.
Evaluation in a Complex Adaptive System
Glenda Eoyang and Thomas Berkas
This article (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang and Thomas Berkas, Ph.D. proposes methodology and tools for evaluation in complex adaptive systems, describing the critical characteristics that make this type of evaluation different from traditional models.
Facilitating Reentry of Formerly Incarcerated People: A Systems Approach
David Peter Stroh
Describes a systems thinking initiative that enabled a leadership group of 100 criminal justice reformers to develop a deeper appreciation of how their work was connected and to identify new ways of supporting the successful reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society.
Far Out and the Way Back
Glenda Eoyang and Mary O'Hara Devereaux
This article (PDF) is based on a joint keynote by Glenda Eoyang and Mary O'Hara Devereaux at the ODN Conference in 2005. They address Future Trends, Complexity and Strategy
Human Systems Dynamics: The Landscape of Research and Practice
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang, and its accompanying table explores how various strands of the field are different and how these differences might enhance, rather than fragment, shared work.
Leadership and Systems Thinking
Leaders operate in the realm of bewildering uncertainty and staggering complexity. Today’s problems are rarely simple and clear-cut. If they were, they would likely already have been solved by someone else. If not well considered—and sometimes even when they are—today’s solutions become tomorrow’s problems. Success in the contemporary operating environment requires different ways of thinking about problems and organizations. This article introduces some concepts of systems thinking and suggests that it is a framework that should be understood and applied by leaders at all levels.
Leveraging Change: The Power of Systems Thinking in Action
David Peter Stroh
Demonstrates why Systems Thinking is so useful in facilitating change and describes how to apply it towards that end.
Leveraging Grantmaking- Part 2: Aligning Programmatic Approaches with Complex System Dynamics
David Peter Stroh and Kathleen Zurcher
Part 2 of this article enables funders to apply the insights from Part 1 about how complex systems behave and evolve to meet their primary responsibilities of planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Leveraging Grantmaking-Part 1: Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Social Systems
David Peter Stroh
Enables funders of social change initiatives to leverage their investments by understanding the often non-obvious ways in which these systems behave and evolve.
Managing Your Time as a Leader
David Peter Stroh and Marilyn Paul
Enables leaders to improve how they manage their time by providing guidelines for cultivating their more expandable resources of energy, focus, and relationships. A systems perspective is applied to help readers understand how they can avoid increasing the very time pressure they seek to reduce.
Matrix of Complexity: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach for Studying Emergence in Coevolution
Benyamin Bergmann Lichtenstein
This paper (PDF), by Benyamin Bergmann Lichtenstein, looks at complexity research and its role in organization science.
Organizational Change as Shifting Conversations
Jeffrey D. Ford
This article (PDF) by Jeffrey D. Ford explores producing and managing change within conversationally constructed realities.
Public Health and Human Systems Dynamics
Glenda Eoyang
This article was presented by Glenda Eoyang at Complexity Science in Practice: Understanding & Acting to Improve Health and Healthcare (Plexus Institute, 2003) . It is a result of a structured conversation among public health leaders and human systems dynamics practitioners in Minnesota, and investigates some of the aspects of public health practice from the perspective of human systems dynamics with the goal of illuminating both domains - public health and human systems dynamics.
Questions from the Edge of Chaos
Louise Diamond
When government officials, past and present, met with systems experts, funders, and civil society leaders at a recent Systems and Policy Roundtable as many new questions arose as answers were attempted.
Simple Rules: Organizational DNA
Holladay
This article by Royce Holladay, describes the power of Simple Rules to establish patterns in organizations.
Strategic Planning vs. Adaptive Action Planning
Glenda Eoyang
This brief article (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang outlines the specific differences between traditional strategic planning and the use of Adaptive Action Planning, based on the Eoyang CDE model of complex adaptive systems.
Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for Their Integration
John Pourdehnad, Erica R. Wexler, and Dennis V. Wilson
This paper explores the relationship between Systems and Design Thinking. It specifically looks into the role of Design in Systems Thinking and how looking at the world through a systems lens influences Design. Our intention is to show the critical concepts developed in the Systems and Design Thinking fields, their underlying assumptions, and the ways in which they can be integrated as a cohesive conceptual framework.
While there are many important distinctions that must be considered to understand the similarities and differences of these concepts, gaining a complete understanding of these factors is more than can be covered in this paper. Nevertheless, the most critical classifying variable used to distinguish these concepts will be discussed in order to make their integration possible.
This variable, the recognition of purposeful behavior, will be used to develop a conceptual vision for how a combined approach can be used to research, plan, design and manage social systems…Systems in which people play the principle role.
The Beast
Lois Yellowthunder
This paper (PDF) by Lois Yellowthunder provides a description of mob mentality through the lens of human systems dynamics.
The Phoenix Process
Louise Diamond
The Phoenix Process is a template for working groups based on a systems understanding of our interconnected world. Using core principles from systems and complexity sciences, it allows a group of disparate voices to inquire deeply into the challenges and opportunities within complex issues and to discover new possibilities and creative approaches.
The Systems Orientation: From Conflict to Courage
David Peter Stroh
Describes the orientation that underlies and reinforces the use of systems thinking tools, including curiosity, clarity, compassion, choice and courage.
The Three Layers of Interconnectedness
Louise Diamond
What would our world look like if we understood that everything is interconnected? But REALLY understood it! This question drives my understanding of national security and all the inter-related global issues and systems crises we currently face.
The Traditional Meets the Emergent: The Modernization of T-Groups
Kristine Quade
This article (PDF) by Kristine Quade compares the traditional T-Group to the HSD-Group and also explores concepts of feedback and group dynamics.
Twelve Simple Rules of Systems Thinking for Complex Global Issues
Louise Diamond
Discover the 12 rules about living systems and their implications for policy considerations when dealing with some of our greatest and most difficult challenges.
Using Complexity Science to Facilitate Self-Organizing Processes in Teams
Edwin Olson
Team building is generally successful if members and the leader are open, trusting, and committed. When these conditions are absent, the team is dysfunctional. In this paper (PDF) by Edwin Olson, themes from complexity science are used to explain and prescribe interventions.
What it Takes: Perspectives for Facilitating
Royce Holladay and Glenda Eoyang
This article by Royce Holladay and Glenda Eoyang looks at the role and tasks of a world-class facilitator.
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang, Ph.D. presents a brief introduction to some of the applications of chaos science to organizational development and behavior. Link
A Systemic Approach to Ending Homelessness
David Peter Stroh
Describes the system dynamics underlying Calhoun County's experience with chronic homelessness; by identifying these issues a community group was able to design a change initiative that is having lasting social impact. Link
A Systemic View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
David Peter Stroh
Examines the dynamics underlying one of the most troubling conflicts of our time and identifies the leverage points for a sustainable solution. Link
A Systems Approach to Peacebuilding
Louise Diamond
This article (PDF) explains how the work of peace building - whatever form it may take - introduces and supports systemic or holistic thinking, it is inevitably building new pathways for partnership mode. As these pathways widen and then converge, the hundredth monkey phenomenon of a critical mass shift in consciousness becomes inevitable. That shift is essential to building sustainable peace systems, and constitutes the core work of the peacebuilder. Link
A Systems View of the Economic Crisis
David Peter Stroh
Analyzes the policy implications of the current economic crisis for business and political leaders. Link
A Tale of Two Counties
Glenda Eoyang and Lois Yellowthunder
This paper (PDF) was presented by Glenda Eoyang, and Lois Yellowthunder, Ph.D., at the Complexity, Science and Society Conference in Liverpool, England, in October, 2005. Link
After the Dance with Whole Scale Change
Glenda Eoyang and Kristine Quade
Glenda Eoyang and Kristine Quade have co-authored a chapter for the book Handbook of Large-Group Methods, edited by Billy Alban and Barbara Bunker, and published by Jossey-Bass (Wiley). This wonderful book provides a wealth of information about large-group interventions and technologies. In their chapter, 'After the Dance,' Eoyang and Quade describe how the use of human systems dynamics can support an organization in maintaining the momentum to carry out the plans that emerge from large-group events. Link
Business Disaster Planning - How Ready Are You?
Jeri Denniston
Your time is valuable, but so are your company and your employees. Are you prepared should a disaster happen? Do you and your staff know what to do if a fire or flood devastates your premises? What if 30% or more of your staff are out sick due to a pandemic illness? This article will help you get prepared for such situations. Link
Creative Chaos
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang illustrates applications of some metaphors of complexity applied in the creative process. Link
Crossing Borders: Globalization and Its Impact on Corporate Cultures
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang is focused on the concept of fitness and fitness landscapes as they apply to the evolution of survival strategies for individuals and organizations. Link
Designing Initiative Evaluation
Glenda Eoyang
These are some of the many questions to consider in approaching evaluations of multi-level and multi-site bodies of work. To help answer such questions, this document outlines the approach the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) is developing for cluster and initiative evaluation and four key evaluation designs based on looking at initiatives as complex systems. Link
Employee Satisfaction Leads to Unparalleled Success
Jeri Denniston
According to Matthew Kelly in his book, The Dream Manager, "the great majority of people in the workplace today are actively disengaged. People don't feel connected to their work, the organizations they work in, or the people they work with." Companies need to find ways to reward and train employees to help them become the best they can be. In doing so, these workers stay longer and help the organization become the best it can be. With a shortage of available workers coming online in the next 10-20 years, it is ever more critical that companies start acting today to get the current generation trained and focused on helping the company achieve its future vision.
Evaluation in a Complex Adaptive System
Glenda Eoyang and Thomas Berkas
This article (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang and Thomas Berkas, Ph.D. proposes methodology and tools for evaluation in complex adaptive systems, describing the critical characteristics that make this type of evaluation different from traditional models.
Facilitating Reentry of Formerly Incarcerated People: A Systems Approach
David Peter Stroh
Describes a systems thinking initiative that enabled a leadership group of 100 criminal justice reformers to develop a deeper appreciation of how their work was connected and to identify new ways of supporting the successful reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society.
Far Out and the Way Back
Glenda Eoyang and Mary O'Hara Devereaux
This article (PDF) is based on a joint keynote by Glenda Eoyang and Mary O'Hara Devereaux at the ODN Conference in 2005. They address Future Trends, Complexity and Strategy
Human Systems Dynamics: The Landscape of Research and Practice
Glenda Eoyang
This paper (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang, and its accompanying table explores how various strands of the field are different and how these differences might enhance, rather than fragment, shared work.
Leadership and Systems Thinking
Leaders operate in the realm of bewildering uncertainty and staggering complexity. Today’s problems are rarely simple and clear-cut. If they were, they would likely already have been solved by someone else. If not well considered—and sometimes even when they are—today’s solutions become tomorrow’s problems. Success in the contemporary operating environment requires different ways of thinking about problems and organizations. This article introduces some concepts of systems thinking and suggests that it is a framework that should be understood and applied by leaders at all levels.
Leveraging Change: The Power of Systems Thinking in Action
David Peter Stroh
Demonstrates why Systems Thinking is so useful in facilitating change and describes how to apply it towards that end.
Leveraging Grantmaking- Part 2: Aligning Programmatic Approaches with Complex System Dynamics
David Peter Stroh and Kathleen Zurcher
Part 2 of this article enables funders to apply the insights from Part 1 about how complex systems behave and evolve to meet their primary responsibilities of planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Leveraging Grantmaking-Part 1: Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Social Systems
David Peter Stroh
Enables funders of social change initiatives to leverage their investments by understanding the often non-obvious ways in which these systems behave and evolve.
Managing Your Time as a Leader
David Peter Stroh and Marilyn Paul
Enables leaders to improve how they manage their time by providing guidelines for cultivating their more expandable resources of energy, focus, and relationships. A systems perspective is applied to help readers understand how they can avoid increasing the very time pressure they seek to reduce.
Matrix of Complexity: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach for Studying Emergence in Coevolution
Benyamin Bergmann Lichtenstein
This paper (PDF), by Benyamin Bergmann Lichtenstein, looks at complexity research and its role in organization science.
Organizational Change as Shifting Conversations
Jeffrey D. Ford
This article (PDF) by Jeffrey D. Ford explores producing and managing change within conversationally constructed realities.
Public Health and Human Systems Dynamics
Glenda Eoyang
This article was presented by Glenda Eoyang at Complexity Science in Practice: Understanding & Acting to Improve Health and Healthcare (Plexus Institute, 2003) . It is a result of a structured conversation among public health leaders and human systems dynamics practitioners in Minnesota, and investigates some of the aspects of public health practice from the perspective of human systems dynamics with the goal of illuminating both domains - public health and human systems dynamics.
Questions from the Edge of Chaos
Louise Diamond
When government officials, past and present, met with systems experts, funders, and civil society leaders at a recent Systems and Policy Roundtable as many new questions arose as answers were attempted.
Simple Rules: Organizational DNA
Holladay
This article by Royce Holladay, describes the power of Simple Rules to establish patterns in organizations.
Strategic Planning vs. Adaptive Action Planning
Glenda Eoyang
This brief article (PDF) by Glenda Eoyang outlines the specific differences between traditional strategic planning and the use of Adaptive Action Planning, based on the Eoyang CDE model of complex adaptive systems.
Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for Their Integration
John Pourdehnad, Erica R. Wexler, and Dennis V. Wilson
This paper explores the relationship between Systems and Design Thinking. It specifically looks into the role of Design in Systems Thinking and how looking at the world through a systems lens influences Design. Our intention is to show the critical concepts developed in the Systems and Design Thinking fields, their underlying assumptions, and the ways in which they can be integrated as a cohesive conceptual framework.
While there are many important distinctions that must be considered to understand the similarities and differences of these concepts, gaining a complete understanding of these factors is more than can be covered in this paper. Nevertheless, the most critical classifying variable used to distinguish these concepts will be discussed in order to make their integration possible.
This variable, the recognition of purposeful behavior, will be used to develop a conceptual vision for how a combined approach can be used to research, plan, design and manage social systems…Systems in which people play the principle role.
The Beast
Lois Yellowthunder
This paper (PDF) by Lois Yellowthunder provides a description of mob mentality through the lens of human systems dynamics.
The Phoenix Process
Louise Diamond
The Phoenix Process is a template for working groups based on a systems understanding of our interconnected world. Using core principles from systems and complexity sciences, it allows a group of disparate voices to inquire deeply into the challenges and opportunities within complex issues and to discover new possibilities and creative approaches.
The Systems Orientation: From Conflict to Courage
David Peter Stroh
Describes the orientation that underlies and reinforces the use of systems thinking tools, including curiosity, clarity, compassion, choice and courage.
The Three Layers of Interconnectedness
Louise Diamond
What would our world look like if we understood that everything is interconnected? But REALLY understood it! This question drives my understanding of national security and all the inter-related global issues and systems crises we currently face.
The Traditional Meets the Emergent: The Modernization of T-Groups
Kristine Quade
This article (PDF) by Kristine Quade compares the traditional T-Group to the HSD-Group and also explores concepts of feedback and group dynamics.
Twelve Simple Rules of Systems Thinking for Complex Global Issues
Louise Diamond
Discover the 12 rules about living systems and their implications for policy considerations when dealing with some of our greatest and most difficult challenges.
Using Complexity Science to Facilitate Self-Organizing Processes in Teams
Edwin Olson
Team building is generally successful if members and the leader are open, trusting, and committed. When these conditions are absent, the team is dysfunctional. In this paper (PDF) by Edwin Olson, themes from complexity science are used to explain and prescribe interventions.
What it Takes: Perspectives for Facilitating
Royce Holladay and Glenda Eoyang
This article by Royce Holladay and Glenda Eoyang looks at the role and tasks of a world-class facilitator.