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The thing about change is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict. This domain is about how you can build resilience among your employees and your organization to enable them to respond to things that arise in the future.

Suggestions for reducing complexity

Acknowledge unpredictability.

Have you left open the possibility that the project could unfold in different ways? Can you make these different possibilities concrete and discuss them with your stakeholders?

Recognize and support self-organization.

Users will “tinker” – that is, try to adapt the technology and work process to make them work better locally. Are you able to evaluate and support these efforts?

Facilitate interdependencies.

Have you identified the most important interdependencies in the project? Is there anything you can do to strengthen existing interdependencies or develop new ones and reinforce them?

Leave room for experimentation and awareness.

As complex projects unfold, employees will need to experiment more and also talk about what is happening. Encourage them to admit ignorance, explore contradictions, exchange different points of view (they don't have to agree on one version of the “truth”!) and reflect collectively.

Develop the adaptability of your employees and teams.

Train your employees to be creative and adapt to changes when they occur. Sometimes they will have to make judgements based on incomplete or ambiguous data.

Pay attention to human relationships.

Dealing with problems requires give and take. Sometimes it's a matter of muddling through. This will be easier if people know, like and trust each other.

Make productive use of conflicts.

There is rarely one right way to tackle a complex problem, so consider conflicting perspectives as the raw ingredients for producing multifaceted solutions.