This piece by Keith Grint argues that in order to reduce the failure rates of change initiatives we need to frame problems by their complexity, and sets out how leaders might react to each type of problem. Read it in full.
Lankelly Chase’s approach to working with complexity: “We have just published a revised description of our approach to change which sets out how we seek to take action in a situation of high complexity. The thinking behind it can be summed up as follows: Lankelly Chase has a growing conviction that the outcomes we seek can only happen through the actions of whole systems. Although there are many parts of a system – projects, workers, organisations, rules, funding, communities, institutions – that have a bearing on a particular disadvantage or harm, they are all continually affecting each other. No individual part exists or has an effect in isolation of the others. This leads us to think that sustainable change depends on the way all the parts interact.”
See also Lankelly Chase’s System Behaviours: the core behaviours that help systems function better for people facing severe and multiple disadvantage.