| Abstract: | Reality‐real life‐is complex, more complex than can be imagined. The majority of our most pressing issues confronted in the management of organizations are overwhelmingly complex. I make the case for a systems design approach as a remedy. Examples introduced in this paper illuminate conceptual tools that advance how people transform their workplaces despite the collusion of complex forces that thwart their best efforts and the occurrences of failures of straightforward attempts to produce desired outcomes. The primary aim of this paper is to present an overall picture of the way in which complexity and simplicity—which appear to be oppositional—are collaborative allies in the deliberate processes of transforming businesses. The aim is also to underscore the value of complexity to organizational management and design. The secondary aim of this paper is to explore some approaches for simplifying complexity. These diverse means of simplifying complexity help to illuminate the collaborative role that complexity and simplicity play in the process of improving business organizations. This paper demonstrates how complexity can be rendered more simply comprehensible by design. |
