Our Working Hypothesis
This is not a theory of change. It’s a working hypothesis.
Provisional.
Grounded in practice.
Always open to revision.
It reflects how change seems to happen in complex human systems — across engineering, peacebuilding, governance and organisational life.
The hypothesis
In complex human systems, meaningful change does not come from better solutions.
It comes from better ways of seeing, relating and organising.
Behaviour changes when relationships change.
Decisions change when understanding changes.
Structures change when purpose becomes visible.
Not all at once.
Not predictably.
But consistently.
Complexity changes the rules
Most organisations still act as if the world were stable, linear and controllable.
It isn’t.
Complex environments are shaped by interaction, feedback, interpretation and tension — not by plans alone.
In such environments, pushing harder rarely works.
Optimising parts often makes the whole worse.
What helps is not control, but coherence.
Not speed, but sense.
What we have learned, across contexts
From systems engineering, we learned that failure is rarely individual. It emerges from interactions between people, tools, processes and context.
From peacebuilding, we learned that relationships precede agreement. And that many conflicts are structural long before they become personal.
From governance work, we learned that unclear decision-making creates silent violence: frustration, disengagement, burnout.
From facilitation and organisational learning, we learned that change accelerates when people are invited to think together — not when they are told what to do.
Different fields. Same pattern.
These are the essential capabilities organisations need to adapt to an era of complexity.
The disciplines we work with
This working hypothesis is sustained in practice through three disciplines:
Facilitation
Because change in human systems happens through conversation, presence and relationship.
We design and hold spaces where people can think together, name tensions, and work with what is usually avoided.
Complexity & Network Science
Because organisations are not hierarchies, but networks of interaction. We use systemic and network lenses to understand patterns, feedback, coordination and emergence — without reducing complexity to models that oversimplify.
Human Factors
Because people are not resources, variables or risks to be managed. We work with human fallibility, limits and strengths as structural features of any system — designing work that supports reliability, care and sensemaking under pressure.
Together, these disciplines shape how we diagnose, intervene and learn — not as tools, but as ways of engaging with reality..