Robert B. Northrop author of several books on complexity and complex systems defines complexity as a subjective measure of the difficulty in describing and modelling a system (thing or process), and thus being able to predict its behaviour. The complexity of a system or dynamic process can be seen as some increasing function of the degree to which its components engage in structured, organised interactions.
Complexity does hence evoke a system as “a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements (agents, entities, parts, states) forming a collective entity.” This definition is broad enough to include: humans, the brain, the internet, society, organisations… and Poetry (more on this later in the blog)
"Things that are complex have no degree of order, control, or predictability," A complex thing is much more challenging--and different--than the sum of its parts, because its parts interact in unpredictable ways. - Nason
Professor Rick Nason in his book "It's Not Complicated: The Art and Science of Complexity in Business" stated that a complicated issue is one in which "the components can be separated and dealt with in a systematic and logical way that relies on a set of static rules or algorithms."
Now, think of your employees, team or company, can you deal with them as if they were interchangeable parts or like robots managed by an algorithm? Are they complicated or complex? The situation deteriorates really fast when you approach to them as complicated challenges instead of complex systems.
When it comes to complex and multi-dimensional challenges we need to train and educate ourselves in a whole different way, a way which is not linear. Read here about the need for education that transforms not just what people learn, but how they learn, and the business model that powers it.
In art, we strive to realise not only unity, permanence of law, likeness, but also, with it, difference, variety, contrast: it is rhyme we like, not echo and not unison, but harmony. —Gerard Manley Hopkins
Poets have a unique ability to bring harmony within a complex system while speaking to the body, the emotions and the mind of a reader. Listen to this Sound Cloud 5 minute podcast here to explore how poetry can help you navigate and express complexities. When we approach, like a poet, to a complex challenge all our senses are enlivened and working together allowing us to access the dialogue and co-creation of practices, processes and tools that support our progress.
Great artistic achievement makes the reader (or listener or viewer) sense the complexity of the particular art object. Ursula Le Guin, once said, to an interviewer who asked her about the message in her stories, that: "The complex meanings of a serious story can be understood only by participation in the language of the story itself. To translate them into a message or reduce them to a sermon distorts, betrays, and destroys them. This is because a work of art is understood not by the mind only, but by the emotions and by the body itself.”
Great poems (like great art) achieve such complex reactions through the use of form, meter, diction, image, metaphor and much more, all talking to the complexity of our humanity (and system).
No aspect of human knowledge exists in a vacuum. I know this from a lived experience at the intersection of science, poetry and business. My invitation to you is, when approaching complex systems, try to understand and sense them by combining knowledge from literature, science, psychology, and other disciplines. Our success in navigating the future will come from our ability to foster collaboration between scholars of multiple disciplines.
RNEWB offers a robust diversity of experiences, talks, workshops and programs that use storytelling, poetry and heARTistry in an innovative and yet practical methodology. Our work has guided leaders and teams to reach their goals, tap into their creativity, broaden their awareness and improve trust within the organisations they lead. For more information please feel free to get in contact.