Plexus Institute: Evolving to Meet Today’s Challenges
Uniquely established as a collaborative ecosystem, Plexus Institute brings together multidisciplinary participants dedicated to engaging with complex adaptive systems. This ecosystem approach sets Plexus apart, allowing it to understand, advance, and disseminate ideas and practices rooted in the principles of complexity, thereby fostering innovation and transformative solutions across diverse fields.
By avoiding deep constraints and institutionalization, Plexus promotes flexible growth and encourages experimentation while maintaining a commitment to legitimate, validated knowledge in all fields including science, philosophy, art and music. Through this resilient ecosystem model, Plexus continues to push the boundaries of complexity science and contribute to meaningful change.
Then: Building a Complexity Movement
In its early years, Plexus served as a hub for exploring complexity in healthcare, leadership, education, and social systems. It introduced innovative approaches like Positive Deviance, fostered cross-disciplinary dialogue, and advanced the use of complexity-informed frameworks. The focus was on raising awareness, sharing knowledge, and fostering interdisciplinary connections.
Now: A Changing Landscape, A New Approach
Today, the world is even more interconnected, unpredictable, and complex than when Plexus was founded. Traditional approaches to problem-solving continue to fall short in the face of rapid technological shifts, climate change, social fragmentation, and systemic challenges. In response, Plexus is evolving—moving beyond discussion to action-driven experimentation, applied learning, and collaboration.
The Complexity Studio: A New Model for Complexity in Practice
The Complexity Studio at Plexus Institute is designed to be a collaborative incubator—where complexity thinkers, strategists, and practitioners actively engage in real-world problem-solving, innovation, and systems transformation. Instead of just discussing complexity, we all need to work with it.
Accessing and Expanding Plexus Resources
🔹 Accessing and Expanding Plexus Resources
- Leveraging decades of research, case studies, and methodologies housed within Plexus.
- Revisiting and updating proven complexity-based interventions, such as Positive Deviance and Adaptive Leadership.
- Providing a knowledge repository and resource network for those applying complexity in diverse domains.
Establishing New Collaborations & Learning Networks
- Connecting professionals across business, technology, health, policy, and social impact sectors to co-create adaptive strategies.
- Hosting interactive learning spaces—workshops, design labs, and scenario explorations—where participants apply complexity thinking to emerging challenges.
- Partnering with organizations, researchers, and communities to develop new frameworks and interventions that reflect today’s complexity realities.
Shaping the Future of Complexity Practice
- Moving beyond theory by prototyping complexity-based tools and strategies.
- Creating a dynamic ecosystem for experimentation, where members can test and refine complexity-informed approaches.
- Fostering an open, participatory network that grows through collective intelligence, emergent learning, and shared experience.