Comment: Navigating complexity means accepting that our actions reverberate unpredictably. Leadership begins with curiosity, not control.Unintended consequences get to the heart of why you never really understand an adaptive problem until you have solved it.
Problems morph and “solutions” often point to deeper problems.
In social life, as in nature, we are walking on a trampoline.
Every inroad reconfigures the environment we tread on.
Credit: The Power of Positive Deviance
Posts where this quotation is embedded
- There Are No Solutions to Complex Challenges Only an endless series of adaptive responses
- Unintended Consequences In a complex system, every purposeful action produces unintended consequences
Tags: complexity (100) | Jerry Sternin (2) | Monique Sternin (2) | positive deviance (5) | Richard Pascale (2) | unintended consequences (14)
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Wednesday 11th March 2026, 14:00 to 18:00 London time (GMT)
Learn how to design & run a Gurteen Knowledge Café, both face-to-face and online.
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This quotation is part of a blook on Conversational Leadership. It is one of many quotations that have influenced my thinking on the subject. Parts of this blook have restricted access. You may browse the pages open to you, but you will need to register and be approved before you can login and access the full site. When you register, you may also sign-up to receive a quotation of the day by email.