Podcast Notes

Episode 473 It's Not Just Complicated It's Complex w/ Dr. Kevin Krosley Host: Brian Miller, PCCGuest: Dr. Kevin Krosley, CCLC, PhD Date: July 10, 2025

Brian Miller from Coach Approach Ministries talks with Kevin Krosley of Catalyst Leadership about the Complexity-Capacity Gap—a framework for understanding why some leaders or organizations struggle to keep up with the demands of their environment. They explore what makes an organization complex versus complicated, how leaders' individual and collective capacities can match (or fail to match) their challenges, and practical ways to assess and improve organizational effectiveness.

Key Highlights

1. Complex vs. Complicated Work
   • Simple tasks are easy and repeatable.
   • Complicated tasks are multi-step but solvable with expertise.
   • Complex challenges have no clear path, with many interacting elements and uncertainty.
2. Three Streams of Complexity
   • Competitive Complexity: Added by strategic choices (e.g., new markets, products).
   • Requisite Complexity: The minimum necessary to operate effectively.
   • Confounding Complexity: Unnecessary complexity that clogs systems.
3. Leaders Have Varying Capacity
   • Each leader has a unique ability to handle complexity, influenced by both innate traits and development over time (based on Elliott Jaques' research).
4. Collective Leadership Capacity
   • Even strong leaders can underperform if their team lacks trust, commitment, or accountability—drawing on Lencioni's model of cohesive teams.
5. Complexity Requires Appropriate Solutions
   • Oversimplifying complex challenges often leads to ineffective solutions. The goal is to make things as simple as possible—but no simpler.

Takeaways

• Assess Complexity Honestly: Ask whether a problem is truly complicated (solvable with expertise) or complex (requiring adaptive approaches).
• Identify and Remove Confounding Complexity: Audit unnecessary processes, traditions, or bureaucracy that add friction without value.
• Develop Leaders' Capacity: Invest in coaching and experiences that expand individuals' ability to handle greater complexity.
• Strengthen the Leadership Team: Focus on trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and results to amplify collective capacity.
• Align Strategy with Capacity: Before pursuing ambitious initiatives, evaluate whether the organization's current capacity can realistically handle the added complexity.

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