Sonja Blignaut’s 7 Differences between complex and complicated sounds like a listicle, but is in fact an excellent primer on which is which, and why the difference matters. According to Blignaut, “as long as decision-makers believe they are dealing with complicated systems, they will assume they are able to control outcomes[…]” leading to decision making with a poor fit and a high cost, both monetary and in terms of human interaction.
With a nod to Dave Snowden’s Cynefin and Robert Poli’s article about the same topic, Blignaut looks at seven aspects of differences between complex and complicated systems and discusses their impact. Her discussion of linearity brings this almost off-the-cuff assertion: “small safe-to-fail experiments are more useful than large projects designed to be fail-safe.” 🔥 Great article to bookmark and to dive into with the right client.