Introduction
Organisations keep asking the same thing: we have a culture problem, an inclusion problem, a diversity problem, and we want it solved in three months.
Sope Agbelusi's answer is no. Not because the problem is too big, but because it is the wrong kind of problem for a three-month fix. The reason so many organisations fail to create cultures where people belong, rather than squeezing into spaces made for someone else, is that they apply a complicated approach to a complex problem. Most leaders use those two words interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and the difference decides whether your culture work succeeds.
Complicated: the car
Sope draws on his years in the automotive industry. It takes roughly 30,000 to 40,000 components to make the average car, sourced from around 200 suppliers across the world. That sounds enormous, but it is complicated, not complex: there are rules, systems and processes that reliably get those parts made and delivered. Complicated problems are hard but solvable with the right procedure.
Complex: the people
Bring those parts together and the humans enter, and with them complexity. People cannot be approached as an algorithm. What works for one person does not work for another. There are culture clashes, good and bad communication, differing responsibilities, micro views and ego at play. That is why the human side of any creation process is what slows it down, and why it cannot be processed away.
Why the Great Resignation proved the point
The biggest driver behind people leaving their workplaces, Sope argues, was culture: people were treated as commodities and they did not like it. The pandemic gave people time to ask, what am I really doing here? Is this work fulfilling me, growing me, aligned to my values? Different people gave different answers, and those whose values were not being met moved on. Human beings are complex; treat them as interchangeable parts and they leave.
You cannot force conditions, you can only create them
In the complex domain, you cannot force outcomes. You create the conditions for them. Sope's example is the first team he ever led: on paper, a mess. Everyone was older and more experienced than him, and he was the only Black person in the organisation. A car crash waiting to happen.
It became the highest performing team worldwide in a global company. Not through process, but because he took the time to know his people, shared openly, was vulnerable, kept it real and focused on them as individuals rather than numbers on a page. In turn, they went hard for him.
The mindset shift
Until leaders step into complexity, they miss what only lives in the complex domain: innovation, inclusion, agility, equity and curiosity. The question Sope leaves you with: are you applying complicated approaches to a complex problem? When you stop, the change starts.
