The Jim Rutt Show EP 184 Dave Snowden on Managing Complexity in Times of Crisis
01:27:47
Complex vs. Complicated
- Complicated systems can be unfolded and refolded, remaining the same.
- Complex systems, like tangled brambles, constantly shift, guaranteeing unintended consequences.
No Linear Causality
- Complex systems have dispositionality; they are modulated, not caused, in a linear way.
- This lack of linear material causality makes them fundamentally different.
Intuitive Complexitarian
- Jim Rutt intuitively rejected business process engineering in his career, finding it nonsensical.
- He found Peter's book on the topic to be "a crock of horseshit."
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Introduction
00:00 • 2min
Managing Complexity and Chaos in Times of Crisis
02:02 • 2min
The Complexity of Complex Systems
03:35 • 3min
The Importance of Constraints in Complex Systems
06:26 • 4min
The Importance of Openness in Complex Systems
10:17 • 2min
The Complex System Concept of Top-Down Causality
12:40 • 2min
The Importance of Complexity in Knowledge Management
14:54 • 2min
The Fat Tail Method of Decision Making
17:11 • 2min
In Times of Crisis
18:48 • 2min
The Future of Pandemics
21:04 • 2min
The Importance of Attitudes in a Pandemic
22:37 • 3min
The Importance of Agent-Based Systems
25:16 • 2min
Building Informal Networks in a Crisis
27:06 • 3min
The Importance of Relevance Realization
30:19 • 3min
Setting Draconian Constraints in a Crisis
33:48 • 4min
The Right Lessons We Have Learned
37:22 • 2min
The Importance of Comprehensive Journaling
39:25 • 2min
The Complexity Principle of Journaling
41:16 • 2min
The Future of Journaling
43:24 • 2min
The Importance of Ethical Training in Software Development
45:37 • 2min
The Importance of Journaling in the Face of Crisis
47:18 • 2min
The Importance of Size in a Company
49:48 • 2min
The Importance of Three in Management
51:42 • 2min
The Journaling Crew in Game B World
53:42 • 2min
The Importance of Emergetic Moments
55:19 • 2min
The Importance of Clarity in Organizational Change
57:02 • 2min
The Importance of Acceptation
58:44 • 3min
The Role of Abstraction in Human Evolution
01:01:57 • 2min
The Importance of Maintaining Cadence and Control
01:03:34 • 3min
The Hunter Thompson Approach to Business
01:06:19 • 2min
How to Design Strategic Interventions Starting With Stories
01:08:44 • 2min
The Free Switch to Strategy
01:10:40 • 2min
Vector Theory of Change: How to Create a Landscape of Narrative
01:12:22 • 3min
How to Create High Abstraction Metadata
01:14:56 • 3min
The Importance of Constraints in Social Design
01:17:34 • 4min
The Importance of Constructor Theory in Human Systems
01:21:38 • 2min
The Chemical Concept of Catalysis
01:23:18 • 2min
The Relationship Between Energy and Time Dimensions
01:24:52 • 3min
Jim talks with Dave Snowden about the document he co-authored, "Managing Complexity (And Chaos) In Times of Crisis." They discuss the Cynefin framework, its development into a complexity-informed framework, distinguishing complex from complicated, emergence, enabling constraints vs governing constraints, openness in complex systems, short-term teleology vs top-down causality, lines of flight, six sigma, Taylorism, distributed decision-making, the meaning of crisis, preparing for unknowable unknowns, plagues & heat deaths, false learnings of Covid, the order of origin of language & semiotics, building informal networks, exaptation, the right level of granularity, setting Draconian constraints, preserving optionality, anticipatory thinking, comprehensive journaling, LLMs & the recent open letter, the need for ethical awareness, scales of group decision-making, documenters & doers, the aporetic, Covid as a boon to complexity work, cadence vs velocity, ritual in American football, designing strategic interventions with stories, vector theory of change, constructor theory, making the cost of virtue less than the cost of sin, dispositional management, an upcoming book, and much more.
Episode Transcript
JRS EP11 - Dave Snowden and Systems Thinking
"Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis," by Dave Snowden and others
The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex, by Harold J. Morowitz
JRS EP138 - W. Brian Arthur on the Nature of Technology
JRS EP143 - John Vervaeke Part 1: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
Dave Snowden divides his time between two roles: founder Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge and the founder and Director of the Centre for Applied Complexity at the University of Wales. His work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to strategy, organisational decision making and decision making. He has pioneered a science based approach to organisations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory. He is a popular and passionate keynote speaker on a range of subjects, and is well known for his pragmatic cynicism and iconoclastic style.