If I view my work setting through the lens of complexity (Loomis, n.d.), I understand the organization from biological concepts. It is a living organization because it is made up of relationships of people. My facility is Channel Islands Surgicenter; we are a subsystem of Surgical Care Affiliates (SCA). Both are Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Within my own CAS is another CAS which is Nursing, and Nursing has its own subsystems which are human beings, nurse, environment and health. Because a system is a social entity, behavior will occur due to interactions among the agents in a system (Chaffe & McNeill, 2007).
As a clinical nurse leader (CNL) I must adopt complexity thinking if I am to solve or work through a problem. Rather than an immediate fix of the problem, complexity thinking focuses of building and nurturing relationships to come up with ideas (Loomis, n.d.). Biological systems display features of both cooperation and competition (Zimmerman, Lindberg & Plsek, 1998), so allowing others to express their ideas promotes cooperation among those who may tend to disagree.
According to Loomis (n.d.) there are nine principles of complexity science for leadership, utilizing these principles (marked in italics); we focus on lateral leadership and relationships rather than a top-down authoritative approach. In light of this I would inform staff of the general direction that the organization wants to go in by building a “good enough” vision, this allows a few basic guidelines without controlling or forcing the situation into hard and fast rules. Because we are an unpredictable healthcare entity, and the old process is no longer working, the use of swarmware would be appropriate and I would meet with management and suggest giving staff the autonomy to explore new possibilities toward change. By taking multiple actions at the fringes, we will experiment with different suggested approaches, essentially trial and error to see what works and what does not. This may take time as attractors pull transformation toward a certain direction (Ray & Turkel 2011). I would expect to meet with diverse opinions and tension and I would hope that here, tuned to the edge, new ideas would emerge. Ray & Turkel (2011) define this as the “phase space” (p.311) where there is tension between order and disorder. This is a good point to have the people that are in disagreement work together to form a solution to uncover and work with paradox, this puts the group at the edge of chaos and increases the chance for change. As a leader I would need to maintain thoughtful reflection and remember that I don’t need to be “right” or have the solution. Talking with both unit staff and management we would explore what is working and what is not and we would begin to redesign what doesn't work. By engaging in informal discussions, in the breakroom for example, I would listen to the shadow system for ideas that may contribute to subsequent action. Starting small, we would find what works, and then taking that smaller, working chunk, we would eventually add to it using the same process until by chunking, we have linked together a resolution and a new complex system.
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