Coherence is achieved when the interactions and conversations follow the same rules and serve a shared purpose. They reveal a pattern that shapes the ability of the whole system to change direction quickly. Like a flock of birds. We see the parts but not the intricacies of their interconnections when they form a complex adaptive system. The gaps can be mapped and their interactions revealed in sudden insights.

Leaders need to notice when and how these patterns of thinking form and get disrupted. The self-similarity of values and beliefs around the system often allows for resources to be duplicated, relocated or rebalanced.

Achieving coherence can be challenging when combining hierarchical and networked patterns in the same system. Both are needed to balance creative innovation and ordered implementation. But without combining both, learning and change never gets embedded to improve the health of the system.

Emergence

From a systems perspective, we know that larger things emerge from smaller parts: emergence is the natural outcome of things coming together. In the most abstract sense, emergence describes the universal concept of how life emerges from individual biological elements in diverse and unique ways.

Emergence is the outcome of the synergies of the parts; it is about non-linearity and self-organization and we often use the term ‘emergence’ to describe the outcome of things interacting together.

A simple example of emergence is a snowflake. It forms out of environmental factors and biological elements. When the temperature is right, freezing water particles form in beautiful fractal patterns around a single molecule of matter, such as a speck of pollution, a spore, or even dead skin cells.

Conceptually, people often find emergence a bit tricky to get their head around, but when you get it, your brain starts to form emergent outcomes from the disparate and often odd things you encounter in the world.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it will be a butterfly — R. Buckminster Fuller

Blind spots

It can be helpful to get a feel for the whole system before trying to understand the smaller systems with the bigger system. It can help in identifying those points where a strategic intervention could enable a small changes to have a big impact. These are known as “leverage” points where the source of the effect is hidden, but the results can be sensed or observed. Getting at their  source means analysing the pattern of interaction to understand what events, rules or disruptions are at play.

For example, we assume that results come from actions. But when the results do not deliver as expected we instinctively seek to just enhance the existing actions, without questioning if the result we are after requires a different type of action. Just small observations, adjustments and questions can affect the way actions are interpreted, sequenced, valued, assessed or understood can lever a disproportionately large impact on the result.

How results and actions are seen can be influenced by the observers’ beliefs and assumptions, as well as the working environment. These mindsets or paradigms shape the way the system operates and our relationship with it.

Changing our beliefs can leverage to major shifts in the system’s performance. Look for “trigger’” points to introduce changes in attitude, communication and feedback mechanisms to share information can produce significant improvements in decision-making in complex situations.

Collective action

It is then important to see how the “nested” parts of the system function in the same way as the whole system. Diversity gets aligned through new patterns of interaction that can engage and include everyone in the same way to ensure equity and unity of purpose – like fractals. This process can be used in Future Search events where similarities and differences are allowed to emerge to produce a more viable result.

These events enable diverse interests to engage with all sides and sources of tension, such as speed vs. quality or control vs. flexibility, to explore potential conflict and turn it into a source of collective strength. When leaders can listen and ground themselves in empathy and openness, they can leverage diverse perspectives and create safe spaces for compromise and collaboration.