Explaining Complex Systems: Like Watching Star Wars 4

When you start looking at projects as complex systems, you are enlightened and confused at the same time. It is very difficult to explain clearly. It is also important. They make up the underlying concepts of everything I write.

That’s why I want to draw your attention to a discussion that takes place in the comments of my blog.

Wil points to a live audio and PowerPoint recording of a presentation given by Jon Whitty at the University of Queensland. In 20 minutes he outlines the concepts surrounding projects as complex systems.

This is a must see.

Stuff To Read

After viewing this video, you might be left with a sense of “but what does this mean?” I recommend that you read immediately afterward:

Black Swan: The Link Between Mind, Complexity And Resilience
Importance of recognizing the difference between Gaussian or Fattail distributions.
Go To The Spike And Become Adaptive
About hubs, human network and why the “rich get ritcher”.
Project Management Code: Why Do You Do What You Do?
Are our industry’s best practices really that, or do we merely say they are because as a PM we are expected to say so? The article that triggered the comments from Wil.

This will provide you with a glimpse of the whole picture. That’s just because no one has the entire picture yet.

As Wil puts it:

“… it’s like watching star wars 4 and 5. I have a sense that he’s got episodes 6 and 1, 2, and 3, up his sleeve somewhere, or at least know what they should be about.”