Confused Of Calcutta » Blog Archive » More on Control and Complexity and Big

Big is necessary for Complex. But only when Complex itself is necessary. What I worry about is how often Complex is a construct of past hierarchies rather than a genuine need to solve a problem. I've heard phrases like "Don't Allocate, Isolate", "Don't Automate, Obliterate" for a few decades now. I've even read HBR and related articles with similar titles that long ago. So why doesn't it happen? Because of Unnecessary Complex.

Perhaps this isn't a deep thought from the CIO of DrKW, but it certainly crystallized some issues for me. Namely that complex processes require rigid structures and lots of people, but what happens when the underlying technologies that enable the process start hiding more and more of the complexity? Do you also collapse the size of the structures atop the process? Not necessarily.