Complex adaptive systems (CAS) – a proven model of high agility
The challenges of environments becoming highly dynamic, interconnected, and unpredictable might be new in the context of business, but they are widely prevalent in life and social sciences and have existed since eternity. Prominent examples are humans, ecology, the global macroeconomic network within a country, or group of countries, the stock market and complex webs of cross-border holding companies, social insect (for example, ant) colonies, and any human social group-based endeavor. These systems are better known as complex adaptive systems (CAS). These systems have demonstrated a pattern of evolving, that is, adapting and responding to change.
According to Martin Reeves, co-author of Your Strategy Needs a Strategy, and others in an article in the Harvard Business Review:
"We stress that companies are identical to biological species in an important respect: both are what's known as complex adaptive systems. Therefore, the principles that confer robustness in these systems, whether natural or manmade, are directly applicable to business.'' [vii]
Given how consistently and effectively these systems have demonstrated agility, it is worth exploring whether there are any learnings from CAS for enterprises, with respect to dealing with change.