PhD Student: Anton Rossouw

Adaptive Project ManagementApplying a Complexity Science approach to

Project Management during organisational

change.

10-12 August 2009, National Convention Centre, Canberra

Introduction

The challenge of Change:

“We are all trying to cope with a cataract of interwoven

technological, economic, societal and ecological changes on

a global scale” (McMillan, 2008, p14)

Equilibrium is death ! (Pascale et al., 2000)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the

most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to

change” Charles Darwin 1859

Introducing Complexity science as a view of dynamical

change, and interpreting it for use during projects as

Adaptive Project Management.

Acceleration of change

Post 1950’s Information Age Megashift (Naisbitt,1982).

Instant access to information accelerates our lives and

the pace of change (Gleick, 2000).

Globalisation, social networking communities, virtual

worlds.

Projects are recognized as instruments of change

(Blake and Bush, 2009).

Change models such as Complexity Science (Dooley,

2004) that will help us to improve the way we deal with

change.

Complicated vs. Complex

Complicated System

Linear behaviour, Predictable.

Equal to the sum of its parts.

Complex System

Non-Linear responses, unpredictable

behaviour.

Positive and Negative feedback,

spontaneous emergence.

Cannot be adequately described by

analysing the components alone.

Source: Cilliers,1998.

In the “Zone”

Ralph Stacey’s Agreement and Certainty Matrix: (Stacey,1996)More from Macmillan at http://www.plexusinstitute.org/edgeware/archive/think/main_aides3.html

Complexity Science

A shift away from the predictability of classical science.

A new multidisciplinary science, still emerging, with

various interpretations and definitions. Offers a

fundamental world-view shift (Dent, 1999).

Time driven dynamical systems; that are “living”,

learning, evolving and spontaneously self-organising.

Open to environmental interaction, nonlinear behaviors,

unpredictable emergent phenomena, self-organising.

Order for free at the edge of chaos (Kaufman, 1993).

Evolution and collapse of societies (Diamond, 2005).

Map of Complexity evolution

Source : Brian Castellani : http://www.art-sciencefactory.com/complexity-map_feb09.html

Complexity in ActionRobot powered by Physarum slime mould. Sources (17 June 2009) :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/feb/15/uknews.robots

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/slime_mold.html

Ant Farm Simulator: Source (17 June 2009) :

http://www.geocities.com/chamonate/hormigas/antfarm/

Flocking behaviour – 3D Boids: Source (17 June 2009)

http://www.navgen.com/3d_boids/index.html

Jazz Improvisation

Source: Johnson (2007)Manchester UK: Source: Johnson (2001)

Image 22 June 2009 Google Earth

A Mindset Shift Emerging worldview

Holism, internal and external

Mutual non-linear causality

Perspectival reality

Indeterminism

Adaptive self-organisation

Relationship focus

Polarity thinking

Postmodern

Heterarchy within levels

Understanding and facilitation

Equality

Paradox

Biology

Patterns and lifecycles

Bottom up emergent behaviour

Focus on Feedback

Generalist

Morphogenisis

Focus on variations and trends

Source: Dent 2001, p8

Traditional worldview

Reductionism, external focus

Singular linear causality

Objective reality

Determinism

Survival of the fittest

Discreet entity focus

Either/Or thinking

Modern/Classical

Hierarchical levels

Prediction and control

Patriarchy

Logic

Physics

Deterministic equilibrium

Top down influenced behaviour

Focus on Directives

Specialist

Assembly

Focus on averages

Complex Adaptive Systems

Many interacting time driven agents, system wide

emergence, learning and adaptation, self organising.

Rich short-range information exchange, with positive,

negative, direct and indirect feedback.

Non-linear cause and effect, open to feeding on and

exchanging energy from the environment.

Historical “memory” of the past influences current action

and future evolution, seeking advantage for itself.

High energy evolution happens far from equilibrium at

“edge of chaos” learning, low energy leads to collapse.

Source: Cilliers, 1998.

CAS Diagram

CAS : Source (22 June 2009) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

Complexity and Management Science

Consistent response against traditional Taylorist

command-and-control management practiced today

(McMillan, 2008).

A shift from working on (apart from) to working within (a

part of) the organisation.

Organisations are change challenged complex adaptive

systems (Anderson, 1999).

Applied as models and metaphors for strategic

management (Stacey, 2007), change management

(McMillan, 2004), learning (Anderson, 1999).

Complexity and Project Management

Project management (Ivory and Alderman, 2005,

Cooke-Davies et al., 2007, Jaafari, 2003).

Information systems development projects (Benbya

and McKelvey, 2006).

Project social capital (Weaver, 2007).

Innovation projects (Harkema, 2003).

Project based organisations (Sato et al., 2004).

Agile methodologies (Meso and Jain, 2006).

The project as a Hierarchy

To the project as a Network

Adapted from Stacey,1996

AB

C

F

D

E

L M

N

P

O

Q

R

Project 1

Organisation A

Shadow Network

Legitimate Network

XAgent

GHJ

IK

Organisation B

Environment / Landscape

S

T

U

Project 2

Complexity perspective on Change

Source: McMillan,2004, p67

Dynamical

Non-Linear

Creative

Opportunistic

Revolutionary

Continuous

Turbulent

Uncontrollable

Normal

Unpredictable

Traditional

Linear

Disruptive

Cause and Effect

Incremental

An Event

Calamitous

Controllable

Abnormal

Predictable

Adaptive Project Management

An interpretation of complexity as applied to projects as

Complex Adaptive Systems:

A new model for dynamical adaptive change management.

Participative leadership influence is more effective than the

traditional command and control management styles.

Supplemental to (not a replacement of) traditional models.

The balancing act of integrating the Complicated

(mechanism) and the Complex (organism) into an outcome.

Spontaneous re-organisation happens at the right conditions.

Adapt and evolve the plan (not time) and seek the free order.

Rich interactive environments with communication fuels

“edge of chaos” creative and innovative spontaneous events.

Value of Complexity thinking?

A new way of understanding the adaptive dynamics of

organisations, projects and change.

The promise of emergent order for free.

Innovative change happens at the edge of chaos.

The influence of leadership as a-part-of the system.

Leadership can be formal and also emergent.

Accentuate the importance of memory, start-up rules,

diversity and the power of close communication.

Anticipate non-linear unexpected events. Understanding

the space between logic and paradox.

Resources

Santa Fe Institute: www.santafe.edu

Plexus Institute: www.plexusinstitute.org

Complexity Society: www.complexity-society.com

Emergence Journal:

www.emergence.org/ECO_site/web-content/table.html

Ralph Stacey: www.herts.ac.uk/courses/schools-of-

study/business/research/complexity-and-management-

centre/home.cfm

Book: KAUFFMAN, S. (1995) At Home in the Universe:

The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and

Complexity, New York, Oxford University Press.

References (1) ANDERSON, P. (1999) Complexity theory and organization science. Organization Science, 10, 216-232.

BENBYA, H. & MCKELVEY, B. (2006) Toward a complexity theory of information systems development. Information Technology

and People, 19, 12-34.

BLAKE, I. & BUSH, C. (2009) Project Managing Change : practical tools and techniques to make change happen, Harlow, Pearson

Education.

CILLIERS, P. (1998) Complexity and postmodernism: Understanding complex systems, London and New York, Routledge.

COOKE-DAVIES, T., CICMIL, S., CRAWFORD, L. & RICHARDSON, K. (2007) We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto: Mapping the

strange landscape of complexity theory, and its relationship to project management. Project Management Journal, 38.

DENT, E. B. (1999) Complexity science: a worldview shift. Emergence, 1, 5-19.

DIAMOND, J. (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, New York, Viking Penguin.

DOOLEY, K. J. (2004) Complexity science models of organizational change. IN POOLE, S. & VAN DE VEN, A. (Eds.) Handbook of

organizational change and development. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

GLEICK, J. (2000) Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything London, Abacus.

HARKEMA, S. (2003) A complex adaptive perspective on learning within innovation projects. The Learning Organisation, 10, 340-

346.

HOLLAND, J. (1998) Emergence from Chaos to Order, New York, Oxford University Press.

IVORY, C. & ALDERMAN, N. (2005) Can Project Management Learn anything From Studies of Failure in Complex Systems?

Project Management Journal, 36, 5-16.

JAAFARI, A. (2003) Project management in the age of complexity and change. Project Management Journal, 34, 47-57.

JOHNSON, S. (2001) Emergence: The connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software, London, Penguin Books.

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References (2) KAUFMAN, S. A. (1993) The Sciences of Complexity and "Origins of Order". IN BROCKMAN, J. (Ed.) Creativity - The Reality Club

4. New York, Touchstone.

MCMILLAN, E. (2004) Complexity, Organizations and Change, London, Routledge.

MCMILLAN, E. (2008) Complexity, Management and the Dynamics of Change - Challenges for practice, London, Routledge.

MESO, P. & JAIN, R. (2006) Agile software development: Adaptive systems principles and best practices. Information Systems

Management, 23, 19-30.

NAISBITT, J. (1982) Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives, New York, Warner Books.

PASCALE, R., MILLEMANN, M. & GIOJA, L. (2000) Surfing the edge of chaos : the laws of nature and the new laws of business,

New York, Crown Business.

SATO, C. E. Y., DERGINT, D. E. A. & HATAKEYAMA, K. (2004) Project-Based Organizations as Complex Adaptive Systems.

Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology Symposium. Portland State Univeristy, Portland

OR, USA, LACTEC Institute of Technology for Development, Brazil.

STACEY, R.(1996) Complexity and creativity in organizations, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.

STACEY, R. (2002), Strategic management and organisational dynamics: the challenge of complexity. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall,

Harlow

STACEY, R. (2007) Strategic management and organisational dynamics: The challenge of complexity to ways of thinking about

organisations, 5th e. Harlow, Essex, Pearson Education Limited.

TAYLOR, F., W. (1911) Principles of Scientific Management, New York, Harper & Bros.

WEAVER, P. (2007) A Simple View of 'Complexity' in Project Management. WPM Week. Singapore.