PlAying wiTH CARS: A PluRAliST APPRoACH To SuPPoRTing ExECuTivE DECiSion-MAking

In the defense and security field there is an increasing awareness of the complexity of conflict and of the military expertise needed to successfully engage with and survive them. Yet, among the management, engineering and scientific sectors of government, the development of policy and capability are still rooted in conventional design and control paradigms. Enterprise executives seeking to design and manage complex human enterprises face many challenges not met by conventional knowledge paradigms. The value of complexity thinking lies in its ability to inform these challenges in the areas of policy analysis, strategies for managing adaptation, understanding cultural and social process aspects of management and generating practical heuristics for managers to use. Specifically, executives need two things from science and consultants – understanding of the options for effective intervention and confidence acting in uncertain circumstances. The paper provides an integrative and pluralist approach to informing executives and managers of Complex Adaptive Reflective Systems (CARS) – complex human systems.