Creating the Complex Adaptive Organization: A Primer on Complex Adaptive Systems

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS (CAS) theory describes the manner in which change occurs in an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable operating environment. It also gives us considerable insight into how human systems might organize themselves in order to adapt fluidly, and even thrive, in response to continuous external change. The reason this is so important to OD practitioners is that our world is currently experiencing an escalating and irreversible trend towards increasing complexity. Old methods of understanding change and organizing human systems are inconsistent with this new reality. In the past, the world seemed a more stable place. Assumptions regarding cause and