ManagingComplexity.net – March 5, 2018
The simple answer is, complex challenges are complex.
While that’s a correct answer, it’s not helpful in improving our abilities to manage complexity. With complexity, we know simple solutions usually fail miserably. That’s unless the solution to a complex challenge fits on a bumper sticker and you are a politician. See more …
Obesity is one of the most complex challenges of our time. Today, over one third of the adults in the United States are obese. Our future may not be any better based on a recent study predicting over 57% of today’s American children will be obese by the time they reach the age of 35. To address complex challenges, we must understand the impacting elements (determinats of health) that may need to be addressed to achieve the mission. Our National Institute of Health Director, Dr. Francis Collins, writes that we may have discovered new determinants of obesity: neuronal projections on brain cells. See more …
Managing Complexity – January 9, 2018
For the first time since 1962 and 1963, the United States life expectancy at birth has declined two years in a row. This has been mostly attributed to higher death rates among young and middle-aged Americans with a 21 percent increase in fatal drug overdoses and the death rate doubling from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. See more …
Managing Complexity – October 18, 2017
A mother of three young children is ten minutes into her thirty-minute drive home after a challenging day at work. She will not remember anything about her commute. The prefrontal cortex of her brain that controls executive functions is consumed with thoughts of her kids, husband, parents, boss, clients, friends and other commitments. The basal ganglia of her brain that coordinates automatic behaviors is managing the driving on this ordinary trip home. See more …
Managing Complexity – October 10, 2017
Economist Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in economics yesterday for his work in Behavioral Economics. This is a field of study of the complexity of human decision making. He is second person to win a Noble Prize in economics for Behavioral Economics. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the same award in 2002. The field is a bridge between economics and psychology in decison making. See more …
Managing Complexity – October 9, 2017
There are few things more complex to manage in life than choosing a path or journey after graduation. A high school teenager, with little experience with life altering decisions, must choose an education or vocational path, maybe a new place to live, and a complex journey. A college senior must choose a path of uncertainty that they hope leads to what they think they want. See more …
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