Showcase: The Complexity Project
Right around the time I kicked off Collaboration Dynamics, I reconnected to catch up with my friend and colleague, Ken Banister. As it turns out, he was taking the first steps in his own venture called The Complexity Project, which is an ongoing exploration of stories and studies help us deconstruct the complexity we experience in our lives. This is one of Ken’s strengths; he has always been the one to point to the connections among things; to see the system as it were.
Each week, Ken posts new insights into the world of complexity. He’s covered topics like cumulative environmental effects, strategic planning, human thinking in complex situations, and tipping points within complex systems.
Persuasion and Influence for Compliance
In one of my favourite blog posts from Ken, he speaks about some of the tools for persuasion and influence, and how unseen factors can and do influence our behaviour. Ken touches on the importance of the language to persuade and frame our perspectives and our actions. Many of the mechanisms Ken discusses rely on a deep understanding of how the brain responds to new information to make decisions (the field of behavioral science). In the context of compliance, this understanding is deliberately applied so that we are more likely to make decisions that comply with expectations or desired outcomes.
Although Ken frames his discussion around how they could apply to improve compliance, some of these same tools and mechanisms are at play in collaboration. For example, an understanding of behavioural science can give insights into how and why people react as they do when in groups, how diversity affects our perceptions, and how to build trust within a collaborative group.
Complexity and the Triple Bottom Line
The Complexity Project also focused on the triple bottom line with a post outlining the history of the concept by introducing us to John Elkington and his book, Cannibals with Forks. It is an interesting read, because it brings to light the tension between the social, economic, and environmental elements of the triple bottom line, and the ‘shear zones’ between those different bottom lines.
Ken’s discussion of shear zones spurred my thinking about collaboration, because these zones represent complex problems across multiple areas of expertise and, often, with impacts that manifest across society. This, to me, means they are issues that can only be solved through a collaborative approach, where different bodies of knowledge are brought together in creative ways to solve the problem.
Are you a Specialist? My Condolences!
I wanted to highlight this post from Ken, because it speaks to the differences between hedgehogs and foxes, descriptors from Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay entitled The Hedgehog and the Fox. Hedgehogs are specialists, deep experts in a field, with the kind of knowledge and experience you want in someone exploring medical science. In contrast, foxes are broad thinkers, that work best across the boundaries of particular fields.
In collaboration, the problems we face often require a mix of different expertise combined in new or unique way (in the shear zone, as I mentioned above), so you are definitely looking for people with a fox mentality. In fact, a collaborative group may act collectively as a fox mentality to bring many different perspectives to a problem.
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I’m always happy to read something Ken put’s out through the Complexity Project. Be sure to check out his work and sign up for his posts. Keep going, Ken!
Happy Collaborating!
Scott Millar often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together. Through Collaboration Dynamics, he offers a program in High Performance Collaboration, where he guides groups to explore the nature of collaboration, inclusivity, and innovation, and acquire new abilities to create the conditions that enable groups to contribute and thrive in challenging environments.
Scott is also the host of the Cool Collaborations podcast where he explores fun stories and insights of successful collaboration with guests from around the world, and then dives into what made them work. Cool Collaborations is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
