Navigating Social Complexity with the Tools We Have

Why does humanity have such a difficult time solving some social problems? And what can we do about it? The short answer is this: The human brain is not good at navigating complexity, so human institutions are not organized around complexity. But the human brain is good at building tools, and some humans have built tools to help navigate aspects of complexity. We have not built all the tools we need—but we also do not use all the tools we have. Therefore, if we want to navigate social complexity more effectively, we need to use the tools we have; we need to organize our institutions around complexity; we need to invest in the development of new tools; and we need to invest in the production of new knowledge that will enable us to build even better tools. This report presents results from a two-year study on navigating social complexity. The first finding argues that problem-solving institutions are not systematically using even a fraction of the scores of tools and methods that exist for understanding complex problems or identifying feasible paths to durable change. The second argues that those tools and methods are also not being used to understand how the institutions themselves could be more effectively organized to mobilize the “systemic depth” needed to address complex problems. And the third finding argues that the tools and methods themselves are mutually unintelligible and therefore not being used in ways that would enable deeper insights into complex social dynamics and system change. The report introduces “socioinformatics” as a concept and framework for improving how researchers and decision makers can use existing tools for studying and navigating complex social dynamics.

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