What is Human Systems Dynamics?

A young plant seedling

The Paradigm

for an Emerging Future

The Human System Dynamics field emerged from the studies of complexity sciences made useful. HSD Practitioners use an inquiry-based problem-solving process that can keep you moving forward in a rapidly changing world that you can’t predict or control.

Discover Human Systems Dynamics Paradigm for the 21st Century, by Dr. Glenda Eoyang.

Complex times require simple strategies

HSD Models & Methods are the simple strategies required for today’s complex times.

Adaptive Action

An iterative adaptive process leads you to your next wise action, even in the most chaotic situations.

A person jumping on his skateboard

The Adaptive Action questions are at the heart of Human Systems Dynamics. They are simple as child’s play, but they are not easy: they demand humility, courage, care, and curiosity from individuals and groups.

HSD as a problem-solving approach

HSD uses three key questions that have the power to keep you moving forward:

DATA GATHERING: What do you observe? Know for sure? Wonder?

ANALYSIS: So what is working, and what is not?

ACTION: Now what will you do to make a difference for the future?

Pattern Logic

By seeing patterns instead of problems, you create new options for action for yourself and others.

Every action shifts the pattern and invites us into the next cycle of pattern-based inquiry and action. We don’t just believe this is the best way to solve complex problems in unpredictable environments, we believe it is the only way.

The Pattern Logic helps you make decisions that lead to your most adaptive action.

In today’s complex systems it is impossible to solve big problems by breaking them up into parts, solving each part, and putting the whole thing back together.

HSD offers an alternative view. When faced with a sticky issue we:

  1. See the patterns that emerge as we explore: What?

  2. Understand the conditions that influence those patterns and hold the problem in place as we ask So what?

  3. Take action to influence the conditions and shift the pattern toward more productivity and coherence as we ask Now what?

Inquiry

Standing in inquiry enables you to see clearly and remain open to the reality around you.

HSD’s inquiry-based problem-solving approach

Inquiry is about questions. It is approaching every interaction, every situation, every opportunity with questions about what can be learned in this moment, in this situation, with this person. In the emergent, unpredictable world of complex systems, inquiry is the only way you can move forward.

In HSD, stand in inquiry when we:

  • Turn judgment into curiosity

  • Turn disagreement into shared exploration

  • Turn defensiveness into self-reflection

  • Turn assumptions into questions

HSD Vision

People everywhere thrive because we see patterns clearly, seek to understand and act with courage to transform turbulence and uncertainty into possibility for all.

CDE Model of Complex Adaptive Systems

The CDE Model sets the foundation for Human Systems Dynamics praxis. This foundation informs perception, meaning making, and action to influence the conditions and, therefore, influence patterns that emerge.

Simple Rules as a basis for complex behavior.

What Are Simple Rules?

Simple Rules are the agreed-upon guides that inform behavior and interactions among members of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). Whether by conscious agreement or by unspoken assent, members of a CAS appear to engage with each other according to a short list of simple rules. Those Simple Rules shape the conditions that characterize the dominant patterns of the system.

Discover HSD Simple Rules

  • A man in deep reflective thought

    Stand in inquiry

  • Two people having an enjoyable conversation

    Connect with stories and impacts

  • A glass ball showing an inverted image of a cathedral

    Search for true and useful

  • Two chess pieces, one of them a rook and one of them a queen

    Find energy in difference

  • A handphone taking a photo of a city far into the distance

    Zoom in and zoom out

  • Putting two fitting jigsaw puzzles together

    Give and get value for value

  • Peach blossoms that are blooming

    Celebrate life!

Discover Simple Rules

Dynamical Change

Linear cause and effect are great when they work. Root causes and logical sequences explain change in mechanical systems. They can even work in some simple, highly constrained human systems. The problem is that they do not help you understand change in highly complex human systems dynamics.

Human Systems Dynamics brings together the practical foundations of social science methods and the theoretical insights from complex adaptive systems to create a theory of change that is both true and useful.

Artistic effect of a spiral staircase

HSD Models & Methods

In rapid, unpredictable change no one has time for complicated tools or obtuse theories. Complex times require simple strategies. HSD Models & Methods are as simple as they are powerful.

Many scholars and practitioners laid a foundation on which HSD is based. Per Bak, Ilya Prigogine, Stuart Kauffman, Jack Cohen, Brenda Zimmerman, Ralph Stacy, Dave Snowden, Kevin Dooley, Jeff Goldstein, and many more have informed and enlivened this work. More than 650 certified HSD Professionals use, adapt, adjust, and enhance the HSD Models & Methods as they support their clients around the world.

“HSD changes the way you think about systems and complexity. It will take your thinking and interactions to the next level, beyond any corporate leadership training.”

- Olga Yiannakis, Agile Coach, Cape Town, South Africa