Turning complexity into a Delight to the Mind : An integrative framework for teaching and learning complex reasoning
基于复杂适应系统理论，提出一个综合框架来教授和学习复杂推理，帮助管理教育者应对认知挑战，培养动态准备能力，以增强社会应对系统性危机的韧性。
Compelling global challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic have multiplied calls for embedding complexity theory in management research and education to develop more effective analytical skills and organizational practices. Yet, educational curricula adopting complexity theory are still very sparse. This conceptual article explores the relationship between complex adaptive system (CAS) theory, individual and organizational learning, and sensemaking to inform a novel integrated framework for teaching and learning complex reasoning. We outline several cognitive challenges hindering the adoption of complex thinking in managerial settings, such as the tendency-to-simplify of reductionist thinking, the counterintuitive nature and continuous evolution of complex systems’ behavior, the difficulty of updating cognitive frames, and the tendency toward immediate decision-making. We thus propose the need for dynamic preparedness as a core competence for embedding complex reasoning in management learning and practice. Based on CAS core concepts, namely nonlinearity, feedback loops, system delays, path dependency, multiple interacting agents, and autopoiesis, we argue how dynamic preparedness can be nurtured through an abductive, situated educational approach, which develops intuition to sensemaking and the ability to recognize the boundary conditions of simplified models. The proposed framework provides a timely contribution to complexity-oriented education, crucial to increasing societal resilience toward future systemic crises.