Dynamic Complexity has the potential to become either better or worse (perhaps some of you may say just like marriages).

In this work, these complexities occur often as a result of systemic structures at play and therefore require a systems view.  They are a series of cause-effect causal factors.  Except the series have now become interlocked and assume what looks like a circular causal structure.  It takes the shape of a causal loop.  This is what we mean when we say they are ‘systemic structures’.

And these structures are the causes of behaviors as they emerge.  For managers, these behaviours present themselves as the results (events) of business performance or the lack thereof, often as a result of policy decisions.  For communities, these may include crime, substance abuse, unbridled health concerns and so on.

When it “goes bad”, these problems will begin to mount.  When it “goes good”, they would usually take care of the problems we face, and as such they go away by themselves often without having the need to require our intervention.

As parents to our children we ‘fight the problem’ or sometimes even “the child”.

But as custodians of society we would need to learn to work with the structures that are causing these behaviours and complexities.  Often, this way, we will learn that access to solutions are actually easier than we think.

Should we choose not deal with these structures, we would soon learn that the only way out of the problem would be to continue to ‘parent’ our children generation after generation, except it’s intensity for the need ‘to parent’ would grow with time.

Which way it goes, would depend on the approach we would use to deal with it.

So, are you ready to ‘”fight” the structure’ or would you want to just keep fighting the problem?

If you are ready, welcome to the world of ‘dealing with structures’ or ‘turning the situation around‘ and learn to use the very structures that created the problem to solve the problem for us.  This is what we mean when we say leverage interventions.

This would tantamount to doing more with less.

But first.  A story.

The title of the story is called “The Healing Poison”.  Have you heard of the story?