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Every generation seems to say that things were simpler “back in my day,”  and people often express a longing to “go back” to when times were easier. Underlying those comments are desires for linear cause and effect, for predictability in our days, and for relief from the complexity of our world. These are, perhaps, understandable hopes from time-to-time – when the emails won’t stop coming, when the 24-hour news cycle bombards us, when we can’t get a human customer service representative on the phone, and on and on.  

Our wishing, though, sometimes obscures that the world has always been complex. What we experience differently today reflects that the velocity of change and our awareness of complexity have increased exponentially.  

For most of human history, each person only experienced a small portion of larger systems. Today, we inhabit multiple, overlapping systems and the density of our interconnectedness is massive.

We lived for centuries with mechanisms that hid complexity. Religions, governments, schools, and other institutions derived authority from reducing uncertainty. Today, there is more transparency, even into the institutions themselves, so it feels like uncertainty abounds.

We have moved from the complicated engineering marvels (like electrification, transportation infrastructure, medical advances, rockets, and more) that were amazing feats yet still driven by predictability and replicability to millions of connected autonomous agents (whether they are algorithms or people) that constantly update their behavior.

Before the late twentieth century, we didn’t have the math or computing power to map complexity. Now that we do, we are acutely aware of complexity and the problems it can create. As we have been conditioned to do, we see a problem; we want to fix it. Instead of fixes, we get frustration.

Many people take pride in hard work, but we’ve discovered that hard work can’t solve complexity.

We can feel an unsettling loss of expertise, because no one can see the full system.

We expect that with all the information available at our fingertips, we should have  answers; we think experts should know; we look to data to provide clarity. In complexity, much of that fails to suffice.

Clear “wins” and the psychological satisfaction that accompany them can be hard to find in complexity.

Much of how we operate today, especially in organizations, still seeks the efficiency and productivity of the industrial age. Complexity calls for space for experimentation and learning, taking more time and effort than most people feel they have – or are allowed – to expend.

All of this drives uncertainty. Uncertainty pushes us toward simplicity. And now we are back to where we started.

Organizations double-down on processes in an effort to force predictability.

People turn back to institutions and seek out groups that offer easy answers, even if those answers don’t fully align with their beliefs.

Others simply put their heads in the sand and pretend complexity doesn’t exist because engaging with it is too overwhelming.

Our mental models need to evolve, and to varying extents, they are. Yet an evolutionary pace may be insufficient in our technologically revolutionary times.

If you have stuck with me this far into this post, I suspect you hope I’m going to give you the answer to complexity. I’m not, because there isn’t one. But don’t leave me just yet … I am offering a few thoughts in hopes they may help you navigate complexity with a little less frustration and overwhelm:

• Embrace the idea of learning because you acted rather than acting only after you learn;

• Get more comfortable holding tensions rather than working to eliminate them;

• Appreciate the simple moments in life, because they do exist even within complexity; and

• Give yourself and others grace while you grow.