Complexity does not appear without any reason. There are signs and forces, such as self-similarity (repetitive simple rules) can indicate and explain how complexity created.
The goal of this series of posts is to explain in plain business English (well, in my English :-)) how complexity arises from very stable and order organizations. I hope that this series will help you to understand this phenomenon and to be able to better deal with it. Each one of these posts explains one driving force to complexity as defines by chaos theory.
Self-similarity – Repetitive Simple Rules
Self-similarity is a concept that can be used to create an amazing visual structure, but it also applies to organizations. Those are set of simple rules that when executed, again and again, create a nested structure where every smaller contained element is similar to the one that contains it. Those simple repetitive rules create a very complex visual structure, or complexity in organizations.
Simple rules are like a double-edged sword. On one side they create complexity, on the other, they are essential to managing complexity. The key here is to understand that there are simple rules that are repetitive and defining all elements in the organization. As those simple rules are executed by more and more elements, the complexity level of the organization will grow.