Introduction

Leading change is an inherently complex endeavour and requires an understanding of the emotional and self-contradictory human aspects of coping with complexity, paradox and transition. In this first chapter, we explore the specific challenges and assumptions behind this statement. In doing so, we will introduce and explore the following: A social constructionist perspective, relating ourselves directly to ‘what is going on’ in the way people perceive this themselves. Organisational change as a process, that fundamentally (1) has something to do with time, energy, the same entity, perception and exchanging; (2) takes place on two interrelated levels: at a micro level as an individual process of learning to cope and at a meso or macro level as a process of exchanging the ‘learnings’. A paradoxical situation, that is, in a situation among colleagues who apparently do not agree with our vision and do not support our efforts to make the requisite change. Snowden and Boon’s ‘Cynefin model’ suggesting that those who try to impose order in a complex context will fail, but those who set the stage, step back a bit, allow patterns to emerge and determine which ones are desirable will succeed. A framework with an overview of three different interrelated theoretical approaches: social constructionism, systems thinking and complexity science.