Stephen Bruce

In this final part of our series on when Complexity makes everything go wrong, we consider two fatal air crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX. We see how a combination of Complexity and a failure to properly respond to it directly contributed to the deaths of 344 people, and we ask if any lessons have been learned…

In this fourth part of our series on when Complexity makes everything go wrong, we look at the London Terror Attacks in 2017. We see how they exposed the inability of trying to anticipate and control Complex situations, and the awful consequences that followed.

In this third part of our series on when Complexity makes everything go wrong, we look at the Complexity of HS2, and how failure to understand this has caused costs to spiral and the whole project to descend into farce.

In this second part of our series on when Complexity makes everything go wrong, we look at Crossrail. We see the futile and failed attempts to control Complexity, and we see the dire consequences.

In this first part of our series on when Complexity makes everything go wrong, we look at the Grenfell tower fire. We see how Complexity not only helped cause it but how – tragically – inappropriate responses needlessly made it far worse.

People generally agree that things are difficult in today’s world. What they don’t generally understand is that this is caused by Complexity and that, if not responded-do appropriately, disaster can quite literally follow.