Simplexity: sensemaking, organizing and storytelling for our time

Ian Colville, Andrew D. Brown, Annie Pye

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

135 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Simplexity is advanced as an umbrella term reflecting sensemaking, organizing and storytelling for our time. People in and out of organizations increasingly find themselves facing novel circumstances that are suffused with dynamic complexity. To make sense through processes of organizing, and to find a plausible answer to the question 'what is the story?', requires a fusion of sufficient complexity of thought with simplicity of action, which we call simplexity. This captures the notion that while sensemaking is a balance between thinking and acting, in a new world that owes less to yesterday's stories and frames, keeping up with the times changes the balance point to clarifying through action. This allows us to see sense (making) more clearly.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-15
Number of pages11
JournalHuman Relations
Volume65
Issue number1
Early online date1 Jan 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2012

Keywords

  • change
  • organizing
  • sensemaking
  • simplexity
  • storytelling
  • Weick

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