1. Quantum Leadership in Complex Adaptive Systems 1
Quantum Leadership in Complex Adaptive Systems
A Brief Overview of System Change in Leadership Among Healthcare Innovators
Breanna Reeser, MHI, ACSM EP-C, EIM
2016

2. Quantum Leadership in Complex Adaptive Systems 2
Quantum Leadership in Complex Adaptive Systems
A brief Overview of System Change in Leadership among Healthcare Innovators
I am so impressed with the text by Jose Fonseca (2002). It is still my favorite historical
innovation text and I continue to use it when I teach the System Thinking course for the College
of Nursing and Health Innovation in the Healthcare Innovation Masters program. The crucial
themes in this course include transparency, complexity science, adaptability, chaos principles,
and systems thinking.
The revolutionary ideas around managing diversity, chaos and misunderstandings are still
foundational to health literacy. Fonseca takes the reader through a real case study into a group of
complex and diverse thinkers. He explains the struggles, frustrations and heated discussions that
take place. He then notes that with out those fiery conversations, innovation cannot be borne.
The Fonseca text, along with Systems Thinking (Meadows, 2009) and Quantum Leadership
(Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 21011), have change the perception of leadership to include a deep
understanding of complex adaptive systems which thrive on chaos. They all support a case for
transparency and middle pack leadership. More and more in the healthcare industry, leaders will
find themselves heading up groups of people with immense knowledge bases that surpass their
own, and that is okay. If you find yourself in that position, leading from them middle while
gaining respect from the group will be contingent on how well you can delegate and how often
you admit your deficiencies in favor of another team members expertise. If the chaos principle
teaches us anything, it is that one leader cannot not know all the variables or control all the
possible outcomes. The more complex and diverse your team is, the more ground you will cover
in controlling variables for the desired outcomes.

3. Quantum Leadership in Complex Adaptive Systems 3
To understand leadership is to be able to look at the group as a leader and see the
complex and adaptive system as a diverse and conflicted group (If yo are lucky enough to have a
diverse and conflicted group, that is is). The biggest mistake made by linear model leaders come
when they try to simplify, standardize, homogenize or even control (in the traditional sense of
restricting differences) the group. To be a leader the business of healthcare in this new era of
techno-social advancements, you have to be able to see the whole prism; each and every side of
the issue. You have to be able to anticipate the butterfly effect for each decision you put into
action. One person in their specific viewpoint can not accomplish this alone. A group of people
trying to fit an idea into one viewpoint will also not accomplish this. You will only get
innovation and novelty if there are complex system interactions causing amplification of
differences (Fonseca, 2002).
Leading in complex adaptive systems means being the orchestrator and allowing ever
instrument to sound different for the purpose of creating a great sound that is something bigger
and more beautiful than the sum of its parts. These are not intuitive behaviors for the industrial
era linear thinker. These concepts must be learned and practiced. Being at peace with diversity
and successfully navigating a conversation from divers opinions to complex solutions is difficult,
even for the best of us, but they do become refined in the art of the practice. Healthcare needs
more leaders like Fonseca, Meadows, Porter-O’Grady and Malloch. Leaders that are willing to
be wrong, to see the opposing view for the depth it brings, and who are committed to finding the
best solution for the group, even at the cost of keeping the peace.

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References
Fonseca, J. (2002). Complexity and Innovation In Organizations. New York, NY: Routledge
Meadows, D. H. (2009). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. New York, NY: Earthscan
Porter-O’Grady, T. & Malloch, K. (2011). Quantum Leadership: Advancing innovation,
transforming health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning