Towards a Practice of Systemic Change — Acknowledging Social Complexity in Project Management

Abstract

The Anthropocene calls for systemic change which requires much more than good ideas, stakeholder activism and self‐organization. Successful change is managed in the form of a project. However, project management itself needs to learn to cope with the systemic complexity of the real world, especially with social complexity. Hence, this paper explores the paradox of reintroducing complexity within a discipline that has professionalized the reduction of complexity. Acknowledging the inevitability of the social aspects in human activity systems, this paper suggests decomposing social complexity along a political and a cultural perspective. This has methodological implications and practical consequences. First, the political stakeholder analysis is enriched with a systemic and ecological view. Second, cultures are interpreted along the lines of meaning‐creation and sensemaking, exploring the stories which are the world to us. Thus, navigating systemic change finally embarks on the concept of next practice, promoting a path forward, step by step. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.