We’re making soup, not jigsaw puzzles
When we’re working to deliver great services in complex systems we often want to feel like we can neatly organise things, one piece at a time.
Finding the missing pieces
Last year, I spent a lot of time using a jigsaw analogy. It went something like this:
“The support for children with SEND in the county feels like an unmade jigsaw puzzle. There are pieces everywhere and we can’t see the whole picture. It is hard for practitioners and parents to understand what is available. To fix the system we keep adding new pieces and hoping the picture will emerge, but we need to slow down and organise the pieces we have. Most of the pieces are there, we just need to line them up correctly.”
I liked this analogy. It captured how people were feeling and provided hope that a clear picture was possible.
Nothing stays in its right place
The problem is that in complex systems services can’t just be put in the right place and left alone, with new services filling in the gaps around them. Nothing ever remains static, and every new piece of the puzzle changes the nature of the other pieces.
There have been a number of ambitious attempts to line up all the different elements of complex systems. The Afghanistan Stability / COIN Dynamics slide from 2009 is a famous (infamous?) example.
The creators of this chart were using ‘system dynamics’ to try and make sense of what was happening in Afghanistan, as a way of informing the military’s counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts. When it was leaked, it was widely ridiculed, and General Stanley McCrystal, who was leading NATO forces at the time, said, “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”
I’ve seen these diagrams in a range of different contexts. The Obesity Systems Map from the Foresight report is another excellent example. It was helpful for getting people beyond the idea that obesity was only about food and exercise. When I worked at HENRY I worked on complex issues around obesity, and I appreciated the attempt to get all the challenges into one visualisation. It also felt overwhelming!
These attempts to understand all the key elements of a system are helpful for taking a snapshot of the complexity that can exist, but that is often allthey can be. By the time you have published your report or presented your slide, things will have moved, and new elements will have been added. We’re also increasingly aware of the impact of shock to the system. They totally transforms the relationships and connections between different elements of the system, you poke one bit of the map and everything moves, in ways that are often impossible to predict.
Huge areas are also missed in attempts to map out systems and problems in this way, creating blind spots. How, for example, do you plug in a piece of the jigsaw around culture?
We are all soup makers
The more complex the problem and the system, the more it shifts and stirs. Thinking about it as a jigsaw, that can be controlled or finished just doesn’t make sense. There is no final picture of a complex system or service. No perfect framework or way of solving problems.
So I started talking about soup rather than jigsaws. My attempts to make sense of the system felt more like I was trying to deconstruct a soup back into its constituent parts to try and understand it. It felt like such an obvious realisation — that I’d got caught up in trying to bring order to something where this was almost impossible and I needed to be ok with everything stirring together and interacting with each other.
This idea of cooking began to really resonate. Too often we rush to add more and more to already complex systems when we actually need to work with more humility, care and respect.
“Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation, experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way.”
Paul Theroux
This is why I’m starting to believe we need to think of ourselves more as cooks and not puzzle builders. Too often we rush to add more and more to already complex systems when we actually need to work with more humility, care and respect. Fewer, well-chosen ingredients are better than trying to keep adding ingredients to improve the flavour.
Cooking together
Maybe there isn’t a need for any analogy — be it jigsaws or soup making — but for me it is helpful. Part of the work I do is helping to make connections and bring clarity to work that people are struggling with. It is important for me not to promise that I can provide the perfect answer and I worry when people are being promised the jigsaw puzzle that neatly fits together or a recipe for success that never fails.
What I offer is the attention, patience and support that helps people to navigate uncertainty, as we all learn and we make progress together.
“Cooking demands attention, patience, and above all, a respect for the gifts of the earth. It is a form of worship, a way of giving thanks.”
Judith Jones
