From chaos to success
The RODEO approach integrates principles and ideas of complexity science in order to enable the transformation of companies towards more robustness in turbulent environments. Complexity science is associated with the theory of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). This theory is concerned with understanding the global behaviour from local interactions among a large number of simple, autonomous agents, constantly adapting to their environment. Companies that want to become more robust on complexity-basis need guidelines and principles so as to successfully make the transformation. The RODEO process integrates six central ideas of complexity science, which are Self-organisation and Emergence, Diversity, Edge-of-Chaos, Historicity and Time, Unpredictability, Pattern Recognition. Self-organisation means that the system organises itself, where patterns emerge from interactions of the agents, without having a master-plan. Self-organising teams cannot work if all team members have the same strengths and weaknesses. This brings to the foreground the principle of Diversity which allows more possibilities to react flexibly to environmental changes. The Edge of Chaos can be interpreted as the balance between structure and flexibility that a company needs to become robust. The Historicity and Time principle refers to the use of past experiences as valuable input material in decision making for the present and future position of a company. The notion of Unpredictability implies that the development of an organisation cannot be foreseen in times of dramatic change. This uncertainty can comprise a threat, but also a source of opportunities. In order to help companies to become more powerful by fostering their functioning as a CAS, the RODEO process focuses on awareness creation for these principles by the means of a RODEO Calendar, a Complexity Introduction Workshop and a Follow up (Pop-up) tool. Furthermore the RODEO Context Analysis allows companies to analyse their current robustness. This assessment indicates the necessary measures and tools for robustness improvement. Moreover, the RODEO approach provides a range of methods in the areas of strategy formation and organisation design, to support the implementation of necessary changes in companies towards this improvement.