Why Ways of Working Can’t Be Mass-Produced 🚫

Organisations & Complexity #2

The desire for Organisational Development and change is seemingly insatiable. Every year, the Big Four management consultancies and legions of imitators compete to snap up the latest hot-shot consultants to mould into silver-bullet sellers who’ll supposedly solve that age-old puzzle: how do we better run our organisations? Yet despite decades of reshuffles, restructures, so-called “best practices,” and “transformations,” most people still can’t stand their jobs.

Simply put, progress in Organisational Development, transformation, and employee engagement has been thoroughly underwhelming. Today, a staggering 77% of employees worldwide—and a whopping 90% in the UK—are disengaged at work (Gallup, 2024). These statistics barely budge year after year, yet experts seem unwilling to change course, stubbornly tweaking the same old formulas despite their obvious failure. Why?

Caught in the Linear Trap 🔄

The endless cycle of failed “transformations” and disengaged employees points to a fundamental issue: an approach to Organisational Development that’s hopelessly misaligned with reality.

So, do organisations follow neat, predictable rules, where success is simply a matter of finding the “right” formula? Or are they complex, living entities—chaotic and unpredictable, shaped as much by chance as by planning? If it’s the latter, surely we should optimise each organisation to respond to its unique challenges rather than blindly following mass-produced management approaches like top-down, lean, agile, self-management, or whatever comes next.

Such a shift would be far from business as usual; it would be nothing less than a paradigm shift. And this level of change is exactly what’s needed if we’re serious about creating healthier, more sustainable workplaces.

The Problem with a Tidy Worldview 🤷‍♂️

Thomas Kuhn argued that scientific fields progress through cycles of seismic change—called paradigm shifts—followed by long periods of “business as usual.” These paradigms define what’s considered legitimate practice within a given field. Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve clung to a linear paradigm, one where causes and effects neatly align. Or do they…

Linearity, as illustrated by an industrial assembly line, is characterised by order, predictability, and universal rules. The thinking goes: put in the right inputs, and you’ll get the desired outcome. This is a world where cause=effect, where the parts of a thing/system can be broken down to reveal the workings of the whole, and where pulling the right levers reliably produces the desired outcome.

Frustratingly for pretty much everyone, linear thinking didn’t just stay in the lab or the factory. It spread, embedding itself across all sorts of domains where it doesn’t belong. Economists, for instance, claimed to have discovered the laws of economic behaviour, while Marx laid out his “immutable” principles of capitalist development. This comforting faith in cause-and-effect thinking and a single path to success remains deeply ingrained. And in many contexts, misguided.

Organisational Development, too, clings to the idea of progress as linear, predictable, and universal, mistakenly applying the laws of physics to teams that operate by very different rules. As a result, consultancies peddle “best practices” and “winning models” that look broadly the same no matter where they’re sold, assuming that every organisation can simply copy and paste the approaches of industry leaders. But organisations aren’t machines, and they’re certainly not clones. Linear thinking has entrenched a model of Organisational Development that fails to account for the reality of today’s complex business landscape.

Linear thinking in Organisational Development leaves telltale signs, from reliance on top-down management to “one-size-fits-all” approaches peddled as universal solutions for a world of diverse organisations. The models pushed by traditional consulting firms are steeped in linearity, based on a lofty view of what’s best for those down below. Yet the notion that every organisation can simply copy and paste the models of today’s leading companies is one we’d do well to resist.

The linear paradigm isn’t something Organisational Development professionals have explicitly agreed upon. Paradigms often fly under the radar, an unspoken bundle of assumptions that quietly yet firmly shape actions. Those oprerating within them may not see their influence at all, let alone suspect that their beliefs are being swayed by something beyond objective truth.

This framework—the one we’re stuck with—hasn’t been explicitly chosen. It’s a paradigm hiding in plain sight, shaping our actions without us realising it. It’s why leaders prescribe slight variations of the same tired methods, convinced they’re on the right track and only need to tweak the current formula. So, they hire consultants, restructure, swap out managers—and repeat the cycle every few years, wondering why nothing changes.

A Shift to Complexity 🌱

Can top-down management structures and reductionist methods really work in a world teeming with a bewildering mix of actors and influences, most of which defy reliable modelling or prediction? No.

The assumptions of linearity have led us to some hefty misjudgements about order and predictability. It’s little surprise, then, that many Organisation Development interventions have missed their mark so consistently. An ill-suited framework has left so-called experts unable to learn from past errors. Shifting to a paradigm rooted in complexity could help end this enduring cycle.

Complexity doesn’t mean chaos; it refers to systems made up of countless interconnected parts that produce stable but constantly evolving patterns. When these patterns adapt over time without breaking down, we find systems that are both complex and adaptive. This is the reality Organisation Development must learn to navigate if it wants engaged employees and thriving businesses: Complex Adaptive Systems.

A New Lens: Recognising Nonlinearity 🔍

Physics has long embraced nonlinearity and Complex Adaptive Systems. Schrödinger and Dirac (among others) introduced the probabilistic, nonlinear world of quantum mechanics, showing that some phenomena are inherently unpredictable. In these systems, the smallest change can lead to vast differences—or no difference at all. And repeating a process won’t necessarily yield the same results. These are systems with emergent properties, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Systems tend to behave in three primary ways: orderly, chaotic, or in self-organised complexity, and they can shift back and forth between these states. Imagine water in a bathtub:

• Order: With both the tap and plug closed, the water sits still—perfectly predictable. Every part of the system is locked into a stable pattern. Is your work perfectly predictable?

• Chaos: Fully open the tap, and the water splashes and swirls unpredictably. An endless variety of states emerges with no discernible pattern. Chaos is a mercifully rare state—think wars and pandemics.

• Complexity: With the tap flowing just right and the plug removed, the water finds a stable rhythm—a state of self-organised complexity. The system cycles through a range of similar but slightly varied states. Does that sound like your workplace?

In this final state, while new particles constantly enter the mix, the system as a whole forms a stable, orderly pattern. Here, chaos and order interact to create what we call self-organised complexity. However, a slight nudge—a sudden burst of flow or a small blockage—can upset the balance, shifting the system into chaos or back to order. Crucially, complex systems evolve through interaction rather than linear cause and effect.

Complex Adaptive Systems 🧠

Complex Adaptive Systems are those that evolve by responding to their environments over time. Local interactions between parts (in teams, that’s often people) create global behaviours (in organisations, we might call this culture) that no single element or command can dictate. This adaptive capacity allows the system to survive, learn, and grow, navigating an ongoing journey of adjustment rather than a linear path to success. Organisations that understand complexity engage in continuous learning, observing outcomes, and nudging interactions towards desired states rather than forcing them. In contrast, organisations that fail to grasp complexity often rely on force and top-down management to achieve their goals—usually with limited success.

When organisations embrace their complexity, they rely on self-driven individuals and rich interactions at every level. Here, meaningful interventions become less about rigid controls and more about fostering local autonomy, flexibility, and a diversity of perspectives. Attempts at micromanagement fail in Complex Adaptive Systems because command and control is no match for unpredictability. Instead, guiding principles, a shared vision, and a sense of trust help align individual actions toward a common goal.

In this open-ended journey, a rich internal variety of people is advantageous, as it ensures that some individuals will be well-suited to new conditions as the system adapts. Conversely, a team or company composed of similar people will struggle to adjust to the new terrain they find themselves working in as their own system—and those they interact with—inevitably evolve.

Rethinking Organisation Development for a Complex World 💡

In complex environments, meaningful interventions come from enabling the conditions required for self-organisation, rather than enforcing rigid order. The focus shifts to observing outcomes and encouraging behaviours that nudge the system (team or organisation) towards desired states. This means autonomy, continuous learning, flexibility, and diversity.

Attempts to “manage” Complex Adaptive Systems through command-and-control tactics or detailed forecasting fall flat. Linear strategies, effective in orderly systems, simply don’t apply in environments shaped by countless internal interactions where causes and effects are rarely straightforward.

In Complex Adaptive Systems, organisations work best when people are free to pursue their interests within a framework that respects both autonomy and shared purpose. When freedom is restricted, interactions suffer, stifling creativity and growth. Organisations that understand this realise that human development isn’t a side benefit; it’s the main event. Their strength lies in empowering individuals to interact freely, build social capital, and make decisions at the local/team level.

Struggling organisations, by contrast, often lack these social links, resulting in weak connections and isolated individuals. Effective organisations intentionally create environments where learning, adaptation, and resilience can thrive. They view development as a slow, open-ended journey—not a destination with fixed coordinates.

A shift towards complexity-informed collaboration redefines not only what organisations do but also how they approach their work. Self-organised complexity—the vital layer between stifling order and wasteful chaos—can only emerge if individuals are free and able to interact within a framework of guiding principles, such as a team agreement, that resonates broadly with the team or organisation.

Is a Paradigm Shift to Complexity Feasible? 🤔

Embracing complexity offers a radically new way of thinking about our organisations. Though paradigm shifts are rarely swift—often emerging through prolonged dissatisfaction with the status quo and gradual exploration of new ideas—they are essential.

Organisation Development is messy and uncertain, shaped by local actors and evolving unpredictably over time. The focus shouldn’t be on cookie-cutter solutions or economic priorities alone, but on human growth and adaptability. For forward-thinking organisations, progress isn’t just about financial gain; it’s a vision that encompasses human development, meaningful engagement, and adaptability.

For those looking to shape the future of organisations, embracing complexity isn’t just desirable—it’s crucial. The time has come to accept that human development must come first, providing the foundation on which enduring organisational success can be built.

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📩 If you missed the first instalment in this series, here it is.

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