The Center for Complex Organizations (CCO) is a community of experienced organization leaders and consultants whose practice is significantly informed by the discipline of Descriptive Psychology.
Our mission is to create and disseminate conceptual frameworks and tools for understanding, leading and changing complex organizations. We do this through on-going dialogue and by publishing the results of past dialogues.
We have a particular interest in making organizational concepts and theories useful in actual practice—especially in complex organizations. We supply the frequently missing “craft layer” between good ideas and principles, and actual work.
This Center is dedicated to organizational and leadership principles and concepts which are informed by the discipline of Descriptive Psychology, and also to the craftsmanship and tools required to make these actually useful in complex organizations.
These tools come not from armchair philosophizing but from 30+ years of leadership and building organizations on the part of the Center Director and Associates at DPI. Interacting with the Center for Complex Organizations is similar to a furniture builder interacting with seasoned cabinet-makers whose toolbox, eye, and approaches are honed by 30 years of practical experience on the ground with all kinds of designs, woods, and customers.
Welcome to the Center for Complex Organizations—and your own emerging craftsmanship—whatever your preferred organizational, leadership, or management theory may be.
How to Participate:
Feel free to browse the papers and resources available through the links to your left. Our publication and downloading policy can be found here.
You are welcome to participate in the on-going dialogue in the Center for Complex Organizations. A password is required to read and comment on the dialogue. Click here to request the password.
Who We Are:
The Dialogues and Papers are created by CCO Associates along with the Center Director. CCO Associates are all experienced practitioners who are adept in applying Descriptive Psychology to organization craft and who have committed to participating in the Center's Dialogue.
"Craft Layer": The fields of organizational development, leadership, and management are full of concepts, theories, values, principles, and general practices. Most of us who are actually managing or learning to navigate in very complex organizations, however, find ourselves asking: “What do I do exactly to implement these ideas on the ground in my own actual situations? The books are great, but they don’t seem to have the legs I need”.
We need a “craft” layer between existing theories, principles and practices, and what an individual or team can do at the level of operating detail “on the ground.” Just as there is more to building furniture than the principles, the diagrams, and the glossy pictures, there is more to building organizations and working relationships than what appears in the organizational books. What is missing is a practical account of the craft (and the subtle craftsmanship) involved—what I actually do to implement these great ideas in my organization by next Tuesday when I launch my project, create my group, solve my problem, or whatever work we have to do—and however complex our situation is.
The Center for Complex Organizations supplies that missing “craft layer” between good ideas and principles, and your own work.
