In a complex world, your business doesn't need more rules, it needs stronger connections.

Leaders often believe that moving faster requires adding processes, tools, and controls. In reality, in a complex environment, this only creates additional workload.
As Donella Meadows demonstrated as early as 2008: it is the relationships between elements — not the elements themselves — that shape the dynamics of a system.
What holds organizations back is not the quality of their people, but the quality of cooperation between them.

Three levers to change the game A common compass

A common compass

Your teams should be able to answer this question without hesitation: “What are we really trying to achieve together?” If answers diverge, you’ve already lost half your energy.

Regular and useful exchanges

Emails and long meetings don’t improve cooperation. What works: short, rhythmic check-ins, focused on real obstacles, with clear rules of engagement — leaving with decisions, not minutes.

A cross-functional indicator

Each department may excel in isolation, but if an issue takes three months to resolve, the system is failing. Choose an indicator that requires collaboration (e.g. overall turnaround time, customer satisfaction, escalation rate avoided).

Volvo and the power of the collective

At Volvo’s cabin factory in Umeå (Sweden), 37 semi-autonomous teams were studied over 7 months.
The result: the stronger the cooperation and inter-team connections, the higher the performance.

Gains included:

  • Improved productivity.
  • Higher delivery quality.
  • Greater job satisfaction.

Rather than piling on controls, Volvo focused on:

  • Semi-autonomous teams able to solve daily problems on their own.
  • Cross-functional coordination spaces between production, maintenance, and quality.
  • A strong emphasis on trust, mutual respect, and shared goals.

Key takeaways

What holds your organization back isn’t talent — it’s the lack of connection.
Cooperation isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s a competitive advantage.
In complexity, connecting beats controlling.

To go further
  • Meadows, D. (2008) – Thinking in Systems. Chelsea Green.
  • Edmondson, A. (2018) – The Fearless Organization. Wiley.
  • Morin, E. (1990) – Introduction à la pensée complexe. ESF.