What Is a Complex System? Applying Complexity to Organisations.

A murmuration of starlings

This shifting cloud of birds moves as one and responds fluidly to external threats from predators.

This complex motion offers huge survival benefits.

Each bird in the murmuration reacts to its nearest neighbours, creating emergent patterns that no single bird controls or predicts. It’s not chaos, but it’s also not predictable. The result is a dynamic yet coherent whole that adapts instantaneously to its environment. Organisations, though seemingly less poetic, operate in remarkably similar ways.

A complex system is a collection of interconnected elements where interactions produce outcomes greater than the sum of their parts. In organisations, complexity exists everywhere. This is the foundational premise of Omnicomplexity: everything within an organisation, from teams and technologies to decisions, processes and culture, operates as a complex system within the wider organisational complex system. These interactions shape not only how organisations function but also how they evolve.

Consider something as seemingly simple as payroll. On the surface, it may appear straightforward: calculate hours worked, apply tax codes, and issue payments. However, the reality is much more intricate. Payroll decisions touch on HR policies, legal compliance, financial forecasting, and employee satisfaction. A delay in processing might affect staff morale and impact team dynamics, productivity, and even external perceptions of the organisation’s reliability. The payroll team itself operates in a complex way. To maintain payroll stability, many complex elements overlap to produce this equilibrium.

This interconnectedness is why complexity is often difficult to grasp. One of its defining characteristics is emergence. Emergence refers to new behaviours or patterns arising from a system’s interactions. Patterns that cannot be attributed to any single component. For example, an organisation’s culture emerges not from policies or leadership styles or any other single element. Culture emerges from the internal and external relationships, interactions, and shared experiences of the people in the organisation. Emergence is what makes complexity both challenging and full of opportunity.

Dynamic equilibrium is another critical concept in understanding organisational complexity. Many elements within an organisation may appear stable or straightforward at first glance. The murmuration seemingly holds its shape despite individuals acting without any centralised control. But this stability is not static. It results from underlying interactions and feedback loops constantly working to maintain balance. For instance, a team consistently meeting deadlines might seem like a straightforward display of efficiency. In reality, this equilibrium might depend on a carefully nurtured balance of trust, clear communication, and adaptive processes. When conditions shift, such as a new team member or a change in priorities, this equilibrium can destabilise, but the dynamic equilibrium can also be seamlessly maintained. We take this for granted but understanding and accepting the underlying complexity at work can have huge benefits.

Feedback loops are essential to the functioning of complex systems. They enable systems (people!) to learn and adapt by amplifying or dampening certain behaviours. Positive feedback loops drive growth or change, while negative feedback loops provide stability by countering fluctuations. In an organisation, a feedback loop might look like customer reviews shaping product development or team feedback during retrospectives influencing workflow adjustments. These loops create the dynamism that allows organisations to be more responsive to challenges and opportunities.

Understanding complexity also highlights the importance of diversity. In systems, diversity fosters resilience and adaptability. For organisations, this means that diverse teams (teams with diverse experiences, skills, and views) are better equipped to solve problems, navigate uncertainty and respond to change. Diversity enriches interactions, creating new possibilities and driving innovation. Without it, systems become rigid and fragile, unable to respond effectively to change.

When leaders view their organisations through the lens of complexity, everything changes. Leadership becomes more about creating the conditions for emergence and adaptability. Decisions are no longer isolated acts but are understood as part of a web of interconnected outcomes.

The beauty of organisational complexity lies in its capacity for both stability and evolution. Organisations that understand this can work with—even enhance—their inherent complexity rather than against it. By recognising the interplay of emergence, feedback, and dynamic equilibrium, we can foster environments where resilience, innovation, and adaptability thrive. Just as a murmuration finds its rhythm in the skies, organisations can find theirs in the ever-shifting landscapes they operate in.