Complexity - TheTwist in VUCA

A jet engine is complicated. Your company is complex. The strategies for managing the risks of each are fundamentally—and dangerously—different.

We call Complexity the "twist" in VUCA because it fundamentally changes the nature of the problems we face. While Volatility, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity describe challenging conditions, Complexity introduces a system where the parts are interdependent and adapt. This means you cannot solve a complex problem by simply breaking it into smaller, complicated parts and fixing them.

Complexity is the twist: it's the element that makes VUCA environments truly unmanageable with old playbooks. You cannot apply a "complicated" solution to a "complex" problem and get the result that you want.