Adaptive Action (Glenda Eoyang & Royce Holladay, 2013) – Alan’s highlights

Page 1, “We begin our exploration of making sense of uncertainty in organisations by outlining our assumptions about today’s complex contexts, explaining what we understand about the dynamics that drive uncertainty, and proposing a practical and simple approach to taking intentional action even when you can neither predict nor control the future”

Page 9, “We offer models and methods to generate creative options for action in response to unknown and unknowable challenges and we advocate for action as a way to understand and influence patterns that leave us stuck in times of radical change. We hope to help them and you develop the adaptive capacity to see, understand and influence change in your own complex human systems

Page 9, “the goal of this book is to help you make sense of the uncertainty around you and build adaptive capacity to engage with the self-organising dynamics of complex adaptive human systems”

Page 10, “Chapter 5, Now What? moves the adaptive action process into action as it provides ways to think and talk about the power of intentional action in self-organising processes. You will distinguish complexity-based descriptions of supervisual systems from the complexity-inspired explanations of the underlying mechanics that drive self-organisation. You will explore explanations of complex adaptive systems that reveal rational paths toward effective action even when you have no way to predict the consequences of your actions.”

Page 13, “Whatever the reason, our work is to make sense of what is happening and take action in the moment. We play with meaning-making approaches that can inform reasonable options for action. We take intentional action to influence patterns in the world around us.”

Page 15, “One gift of complexity science as we understand it is a path out of this dilemma that maintains meaning while flexing to embrace both reductionism and holism. This path is captured in a description of reality in terms of complex adaptive systems A complex adaptive system is a cluster of individual parts that interact with each other and over time system-wide patterns appear. Parts. Interactions. Patterns.”

A simple diagram on page 16

Page 17, “Though using the complex adaptive system as a worldview does us the favour of resolving the atomistic and fundamental wholeness worldview challenges of the past, our work is not done. We have to reframe our ways of observing, understanding and acting if we are to see clearly, assess wisely and move with integrity through the uncertainty of a worldview founded on complex adaptive systems.”

Page 18, “So what is the role of the individual or institutional actor in such a self-organising reality? The role is to pay attention to patterns as they emerge; To consider what patterns mean in the context of other patterns in the past, present and future; To take intentional action to influence new patterns and then to pay attention to the patterns that emerge in response to action starting the cycle over again. We have a name for this cycle of seeing what is happening, making meaning of what you see, taking action based on that meaning and looking again at what is happening. We call it adaptive action. It is the only way to engage wisely with complex adaptive systems to see, understand and influence change as it emerges and it is the focus of this book.”

Page 19, “We will introduce various applications and implications of complex adaptive systems in human situations but three particularly inform the foundations for adaptive action by helping us describe and explain the uncertainty and possibility we experience in complex change. Interdependent pairs, kinds of change and conditions for self-organising. We will explore the theory and practice of these applications and implications next”

So firstly interdependent pairs, page 20. “Ignoring, misunderstanding or mismanaging interdependent pairs is one of the easiest ways to get stuck in a complex human system and the symptoms can take many forms”

Also page 20, “whenever there is an apparently intractable problem there is a good chance that some dysfunctional interdependent pair is driving an unstable dynamic. Once you find the pair and agree on a way to manage it the intractable problem resolves itself into a series of decisions which may be difficult but at least they are not impossible.”

Conditions for self-organising, page 26. “The interdependent pairs influence the stability of change and the three kinds of change help you know how to interact with the changing system. But it is helpful to have a more granular and nuanced way to see, understand and influence changing complex systems. For this we need to consider the conditions that influence the speed, path and results of emergent dynamics”

Page 27, “what factors helped a system self-organise clearly, well and towards ends be valued? What happened when these factors were missing or insufficient? What can we know about conditions for self-organising that can make us supportive partners in a process we do not predict or control?”

Page 27, “we found that the same conditions were relevant when we considered self-organising patterns in social systems. The three are surprisingly simple, deeply profound and as common sense as dirt. They are represented by the CDE model which identifies the three conditions that influence self-organising processes. Container, difference and exchanges.”

Next quote, page 27, “Any complex adaptive system will form patterns when conditions are right. (You can also say that the complex adaptive system will form whatever pattern is right for the conditions because patterns determine conditions and conditions determine patterns.)”

Also page 27, “something has to hold the parts of the system together close enough and long enough that they will interact to create a new pattern. We call this holding together condition container and represent it as C.”

Page 28, “in a complex adaptive system, the parts of the system have to be different in significant ways or no pattern will emerge. This condition we call difference and represent with a D.”

Page 28, “in all these cases and every other social system you ever experienced, differences that make a difference [that’s a Bateson reference], determine the speed and path and outcome of self-organising processes.”

Page 29, “container, difference and exchange are the conditions that influence a self-organising process and shape how quickly the process moves forward, how messy the path is and how clear the resulting pattern is. You can use the CDE to see the pattern as it emerges and understand how the conditions shape the emergent pattern. The CDE model can help you recognise and name conditions of systems but intentional action requires more than just recognition. Conscious influence over self-organising patterns requires an intentional process for seeing, understanding and influencing the conditions that shape change in complex adaptive systems. We call that process adaptive action.”

Page 34, “the complex patterns created by this messy and overwhelming flow of information require that you see and understand what lies under the surface of your day-to-day chaos. If you see the relationships and dynamics that drive change in complex human systems, you can influence them intentionally and creatively”

Page 40, enquiry questions for pattern spotting

Page 43, “we also depend on a very specific definition of pattern to help people get unstuck from the problematic patterns that constrain them. We define patterns as similarities, differences and connections that have meaning across space and time. Patterns defined in this very specific way are the what you look for to begin adaptive action. What are the similarities that give coherence and meaning? What are the differences that exaggerate points of interest or generate tension in the present? What are the connections that resulted from the past and set conditions for future transformation?”

Page 45, “understanding patterns is central to understanding human systems which is why what is the first step in the cycle of adaptive action. How well you can see, understand and influence those patterns determines your adaptive capacity, your ability to adapt by shifting and generating new patterns in a balanced dance of self-organization toward fitness and sustainability”

Page 66, “so what patterns emerge from this deluge of data? So what are the most important patterns I’m seeing? So what contradictions drive this change? So what matters to me, to us, to them? So what opportunities might emerge from the current patterns? So what surprises or puzzles me? So what are my options for action given patterns uncovered?”

Page 69, 70, “when you see a pattern of similarities, differences and connections and you want to change the patterns, all you have to do is change the similarities, differences or connections. Yes, it is as simple and profound as it sounds. We will say it again, if you want to change a pattern all you have to do is change the similarities that give the pattern coherence, the differences that articulate the pattern’s shape and potential or the connections that hold together the elements that affect or are affected by the pattern”

Page 84, “The distinction between description and explanation is particularly important in step 3 of adaptive action. Unless you know something about the mechanics that lead to an outcome it is impossible to know how to take action to influence the next outcome. Given that adaptive action influences action, it requires an understanding of relationships and some inkling of dynamics that shape patterns as they emerge from self-organising processes. In this chapter we explore explanations for complex phenomena in human systems and share some models and methods you can use to explain complex dynamics to inform wise action even when you cannot predict or control a situation.”

Page 89, 90, “To influence change, you must be aware of tensions as they accumulate within a context and make or break connections so as to increase accumulating tensions or else release them. You must see the patterns formed by the CDE in this moment, consider how the patterns support or distort your purpose and take action to influence one or another of the conditions in hopes of shifting the pattern to a more useful configuration of containers, differences and exchanges.”

Page 92, “At this point, everyone always asks the same question. How do you know which of the conditions to change? How do you know which action is the right one? The answer is simple. You don’t. You can never know how a complex system will react when you change the conditions of its self-organising patterns. That is why adaptive action is the only reasonable choice. After you take an action, any action, you watch and see how the system responds. If the pattern gets better in your judgement, then the action was a wise action. If the pattern gets worse, what, then you need to rethink it, so what, and come up with another option, now what.”

Page 121, “Questions like those captured in adaptive action, what, so what, now what, establish a generative relationship between the knower and the known, between the actor and the acted on, as well as between the knowing and the acting”

Page 226 on adaptive sustainability, “At the same time, however, we have to think about the patterns of interaction and decision making that sustain life across families, communities, organisations, regions and the globe. What we do in our organisations to adapt in the face of uncertainty is not sustainable if it does not, in fact, sustain at the level of the parts, individuals, teams, departments, and the greater whole, the environment, the economy, the society.”