Leadership, Basketball and
Complexity Theory
“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in
turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what
far place my touch will be felt.” Frederick Buechner
I coach basketball and one of my challenges is to teach players motion offense. A
motion offense consists of a group of five players performing a variety of maneuvers
that are dependent on what happens when the play first begins.
Any one player’s movements are influenced by the movements of other players both
from his /her own team and from their opponents. One player, “the point guard” starts
things off but the exact action that follows is not predictable and depends on the
interactions of all the players on the court. Things “emerge”.
In the language of systems theory, a motion offense would not be seen as a linear
system, where if “x” is done “y” will happen. It is a non-linear system where every
interaction between players can lead to a new outcome. What happens is highly
dependent on what the initial conditions were.
Health care and people both have the characteristics of non-linear systems. Many of
the solutions proposed to solve issues in health care are based on solutions taken from
linear systems. And the results speak for themselves…they tend to fail dramatically.
Understanding the differences between linear and nonlinear systems might come in
handy if you are a leader of people. Of course it’s not that simple or easy to lead.
One thing to consider, just as a basketball coach considers the characteristics of his
players, are the characteristics of the people you lead. This calls for the appreciation of
nuance and how to incorporate people’s different skills and talents. While the outcome
isn’t predictable, something will emerge and with your ongoing encouragement will lead
to consequences you could not have imagined. It just takes one person to start it.
As this wonderful video shows, all it takes is one person to start things. That person IS
YOU!
To learn more about non-linear systems click here.
“Today the network of relationships linking the human race to
itself and to the rest of the biosphere is so complex that all
aspects affect all others to an extraordinary degree. Someone
should be studying the whole system, however crudely that has
to be done, because no gluing together of partial studies of a
complex nonlinear system can give a good idea of the behavior
of the whole.” Murray Gell-Mann
From the practice fields…
Joe Putos, PT
Chair, Leadership Division
Canadian Physiotherapy Association
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