How Not To Be Confused—Mastering Complexity

It seems simple at first glance—the reorientation of the company; the implementation of the project; the introduction of a change in culture. As soon, however, as you go into detail and pay more attention to things they immediately begin to become complicated, may even perhaps prove to be complex. Why is this? It’s very simple—the factors which become obvious and play a role within the scope of detailed attention to the task increase numerically with every further addition of detail. The risk of losing your eye for the basics is great; interdependency tends towards no longer being manageable and the result is a loss of what researchers call the optimum cognitive distance to the problem. We humans are, as a matter of principle, not particularly well-designed to handle complex issues. According to the most recent findings we are not, as was long supposed, capable of dealing intellectually with seven but rather only with four things at the same time. Given the several 100 or even 1,000 factors which play a role in a more complex project this discrepancy does not, however, make any difference at all.