Table Of Content“I’m an avid follower of Jonathan’s thoughts and body of work.
Jonathan’s book Igniting the Phoenix: A New Vision for IT and
interviews captured exactly what is now transpiring in terms of
business transformation. I have quoted Jonathan on many, many
occasions; his insights into understanding emerging key business
issues both from the IT perspective and the line- of-business have
been truly visionary.”
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Thriving at the Edge of Chaos
Books by Jonathan Sapir
Mastering Untamed Business Processes
How to Build Smart Process Applications on the Salesforce
Platform (2015)
Smart Process App
The Next Breakout Business Advantage (with Peter Fingar
and Craig le Clair) (2013)
The Executives Guide to Force.com
Enabling Shadow IT and Citizen Developers in the Age of
Cloud Computing (2012)
Unleash the Power of Force.com
How to Thrive in the New Digital Economy (2011)
Power in the Cloud
Using Cloud Computing to Build Information Systems at the
Edge of Chaos (2009)
Igniting the Phoenix
A New Vision for IT (2003)
Thriving at the Edge of Chaos
Managing Projects as Complex Adaptive Systems
Jonathan Sapir
First edition published in 2020
by Routledge/Productivity Press
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© 2020 by Jonathan Sapir
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Sapir, Jonathan, author.
Title: Thriving at the edge of chaos : managing projects as complex
adaptive systems / Jonathan Sapir.
Description: Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019036884 (print) | LCCN 2019036885 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367404642 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367405403 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780429356582 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational change. | Project management. | Success in business.
Classification: LCC HD58.8 .S267 2020 (print) |
LCC HD58.8 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/04–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036884
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036885
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at www.taylorandfrancis.com
The Edge of Chaos
The term itself suggests something has gone wrong, but operating at
the edge of chaos is actually healthy; scientists have shown that all large
and complex systems tend to adapt this way. Whether in nature, society,
economics, – or project management – systems must find the right balance
between order and flexibility. This is because their survival and success
depend on being able to constantly sense and adapt to changes in the
environment they operate within.
In a business context, operating at the edge of chaos opens up avenues
for disruptive innovation, cultural overhaul, and process evolution, all of
which help organizations adapt to changing market environments.
BBVA, Order from Chaos: How to Apply Complexity Theory at Work
vii
Contents
Preface ............................................................................................ xiii
Acknowledgments ..........................................................................xvii
About the Author .............................................................................xix
Overview .........................................................................................xxi
Introduction .......................................................................................1
What is a Project? ........................................................................................2
The Assumptions of Traditional Project Management ..............................2
Typical Problems with Traditional Project Management ..........................7
Typical Responses to Project Management Challenges ............................8
The Need for a New Response ................................................................10
How the Book is Organized ....................................................................11
PART I UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY .............................................13
1 The Current Paradigm ...............................................................15
What is a Paradigm? ..................................................................................15
A Paradigm Shift is a Powerful Change Accelerator ...............................16
The Current Paradigm ..............................................................................16
The Current Paradigm Falls Apart ...........................................................20
Why has the Current Paradigm been so Dominant? ...............................24
2 The Paradigm Shifts ..................................................................27
Changing the Paradigm ............................................................................30
Systems Thinking ......................................................................................31
Chaos Theory ............................................................................................34
Complexity Science ..................................................................................36
Systems Thinking versus Complexity Thinking ......................................37
ix
