This summer we had the opportunity to carry out a workshop on complexity management as part of a leadership training course for civil servants from various ministries of the federal state of Thuringia. The participants, who are facing increasingly complex challenges in their everyday work, first got some insight in central aspects of complexity theory. They also trained the classification of different problems according to the CYNEFIN framework and discussed what constitutes leadership competence in the context of complex tasks.
On the second day, the participants took part in the simulation game "Großbürgerhausen", in which a citizen forum is simulated. The challenge here was to agree on a joint proposal for a resolution on the use of the site of an old weaving mill in a German city. The simulation gave the possibility to experience complex dynamics in a safe environment and to reflect on prototypical challenges arising from them. On day three, the focus was put on the application of the gained competences to challenges in their practical work. Here the participants used their own case studies to train the use of methods for visualizing and structuring complex issues.
