Back in 2020 when we were locked down for the first time, I got a deep sense that our lives were never going to be quite the same again. It went deeper than just superficial fear in response to our newly imposed restrictions. I felt something very deep inside that I could not articulate. Suddenly, conversations that once mattered became insignificant. Things I cared about or worried about all changed. Something was emerging, something big but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
Rather than dragging you through every developing thought between then and now, I am going to jump to the present day, here in October 2026. As a systems thinking practitioner, the patterns all around me, the interconnections, the emergence, the shifting sands, the written and unwritten ‘rules of the game’ are at the forefront of my mind. After all, that’s what I do. It’s what I am educated in understanding and experienced at recognising in the real world. Here, now in 2026, I feel a shift in our environment like never before.
I see infrastructures, which were likely years I the making, right under our noses, suddenly showing themselves for what they are. The interconnections between different elements of our data, how our lives are monitored and controlled and what that could mean for us in the future. At first, I was shocked at what I perceived to be the speed of the changes. Then I became even more shocked at the realisation that it isn’t happening quickly but has been happening over many years and we haven’t recognised it for what it is until it has started to jump up and bite us.
At one time in the past, we were frustrated at speaking to an odd chat bot. Now, we don’t just have an odd chat bot, but we have a matrix of chat bot to chat bot and we, the humans, seem to be the odd thing out. I had an experience today with a parcel delivery. The courier said they delivered it. They didn’t (or at least they might have done, just not to me). Usually, I’d just call them up and the driver would realise where it was, retrieve it and bring it to the right address. Instead, today I got an automated message that had a link to click for ‘issues’. Of course, the link didn’t work. I tried to contact the courier but all I got was a chat bot with standardised answers. An impenetrable brick wall. I went back to the company I ordered from, only to find that they too now only answer queries by their chat bot. So, I went from pillar to post, chat bot to chat bot and as you can imagine, nothing was resolved.
This is what we have sunk to on a daily basis and this is not even about the bigger, greatly concerning things that are happening. It is a daft little example, that is relatable to everyone. We are trapped in chat bot and automated message hell. The craving to speak to a human is insatiable.
When I first developed Creating the Conditions for Change© it was my work with the viable system model that inspired it. I focussed on the human elements of the work. I drew on the relational aspect that had driven some of the early work back from 2005 and the whole approach was about being and doing in the world, human to human. It is so desperately needed but so desperately far away from what I think we are going to find ourselves intricately entrapped in very soon.
No longer will understanding the intricate complex situation be enough. No longer will modelling it be enough. No longer will good relationships between colleagues, teams or organisation be enough. The shifts are bigger than this. We are going to have to learn to survive in a world we barely recognise, where structures, policies, rules and regulations will have changed beyond our wildest imagination. We, as humans, may even change beyond what we can imagine now.
I generally don’t sweat the small stuff anymore as it seems so insignificant. That is one of the reasons I am much quieter nowadays. No-one really knows what is coming next but I do believe we are going to be truly tested. By that I mean, we are soon going to find out whether we can actually deal with emergence because what is going to emerge could be bigger than anything we can even begin to imagine. We are all going to have to adapt and I don’t think anyone can tell us how to adequately prepare.
This is relevant because what we advise organisations or groups to be nowadays is adaptive. We encourage them to form relationships, reciprocate with others, keep themselves open to learning and change etc. We are all soon going to have to put that advice into practice in our own worlds and go so very much beyond this too. I wonder just how well we will cope…….
