Category Archives: Complexity

Inconvenient Truths

Posted on October 5, 2022 by julianstodd

Just because something is easy to understand does not make it true, and, conversely, just because something is complex, incomplete, and distasteful to our current conception of the truth, that discomfort alone does not make it wrong. Whilst we enjoy … Continue reading →

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The Human Within Failure, Complexity and Control

Posted on April 5, 2022 by julianstodd

Later today i’ll deliver the first workshop around Failure, Complexity and Control: i’m as ready as i will ever be, and excited to share it. I wanted to share a final reflection on this work before it’s first outing, largely … Continue reading →

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Failure, Complexity and Control

Posted on March 31, 2022 by julianstodd

With some irony, i am deep in complexity as i design a workshop for next week of the same name: this is a familiar feeling. Typically i start by trying to ‘say’ too much – too many slides, too many … Continue reading →

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In Search of Risk

Posted on February 22, 2022 by julianstodd

The term ‘Risk’ defines our exposure to danger, but it’s held in many different ways, in many different spaces, and through varied mechanisms. Many of our forward facing conversations, about change, about innovation, about leadership, involve aspects of risk, some … Continue reading →

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Complexity and Belief

Posted on March 10, 2020 by julianstodd

This is a #WorkingOutLoud post exploring complexity, and the role of belief: it relates to several broader strands of work that explore the social structure of Organisations, and the mechanisms of change. At heart, Organisations are made up of components, … Continue reading →

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Engaging Power [4]: Diffusion

Posted on August 2, 2018 by julianstodd

How do we fight, how do we conquer? In oppositional models of power, we deploy overwhelming force, to disrupt the structure. The sledgehammer solution. But when the structures of violence are held within coherent social units, the sledgehammer reinforces them. … Continue reading →

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Closed Competence

Posted on January 23, 2018 by julianstodd

I have an uneasy relationship with electricity: last time the main fuse blew in my house, i fixed it, tentatively, but turned it back on at arms length, with a wooden spoon, hiding behind a cushion. World class protection from … Continue reading →

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Intertwined Systems

Posted on November 27, 2017 by julianstodd

There’s an illusion of a woodcut that you may have seen: look at it, and you see the silhouette of an old women, but then, the image shifts, and you see a young woman’s face. Concentrate hard, and it shifts … Continue reading →

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A State Of Radical Complexity

Posted on July 5, 2017 by julianstodd

When the banks collapsed in the last financial crisis, there was a phrase bandied about, that some were ‘too big to fail’. This week i’ve been pondering something of the opposite: are some organisations ‘too big to succeed’. I’m not … Continue reading →

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To Simple, Through Complexity

Posted on April 14, 2015 by julianstodd

Agility comes through fluidity: an ability to adapt to circumstance, to diagnose, to deploy, to learn. In essence, it’s simple: codify enough into process to give replicability and scale, keep enough freedom to adapt, to change course as circumstance demands. … Continue reading →

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