Sydney venture applies complex systems to organisational design
House of Complexity, a Sydney-based initiative focused on applying complexity thinking to organisational work, has launched with a structure that combines client work, education and experimentation.
Founded by strategic designers Steven Sullivan and Christian Verlaan, it brings together a design studio, an institute and a ventures arm. Its work spans organisational transformation, social systems, artificial intelligence and climate-related transitions.
House of Complexity sets its approach against what it describes as linear planning and management models. It argues that many organisational and societal challenges behave more like living systems than machines, with outcomes shaped by interaction, uncertainty and interdependence.
Three-part model
The design studio delivers strategy and projects focused on new business and service models, digital product design and building innovation skills within organisations. The institute runs public lectures and courses, and conducts research on complexity and organisational practice. The ventures arm tests tools and models that emerge from complexity thinking.
The founders said the three arms connect and share a focus on complex challenges across business, government and the social sector. They describe the work as drawing on natural and social science, philosophy, design, creative practice and lived experience.
"In a complex world, we cannot keep using ways of thinking designed for simpler conditions," said Steven Sullivan, founder of House of Complexity. "The challenges organisations face today do not sit neatly inside a single perspective. By bringing together insights from science, philosophy, design and lived experience, we develop new ways to think, design and act within complex systems."
Sullivan previously worked at the Deepend Group's strategic design and innovation studio, How To Impact, where he was director and innovation consultant. His past clients include Google, Optus, ING, KFC, DNSW, Uniting, ReachOut, BaptistCare and the Australian Medical Association. He also teaches future thinking and develops enterprise learning programmes at the UTS Transdisciplinary School.
"Complex systems thinking helps organisations see how relationships, feedback, history and power shape what becomes possible. By connecting knowledge across different fields, we can open up new ways of understanding and responding to challenges that would not emerge from any single field alone," said Sullivan.
Verlaan has a product design and software background. He was previously head of design at Ortto and Publishing.com, two software-as-a-service companies. His work has included product vision, design systems and user experience at scale, according to the founders.
Public programme
House of Complexity is planning a public event in Sydney on 16 April. The session will use a live panel format described as a video podcast style, with an in-person audience and online streaming.
The speaker list includes participants from The Smith Family, QLD Health, CSIRO, Prevention United, UTS, UNSW, USYD and Macquarie University. The programme outlines conversations on the role of complex systems thinking in organisational practice and how different disciplines frame change.
Topics include designing conditions for change, models of cognition and organisational sensemaking, and how ideas from science, philosophy and the arts can be recombined. The agenda also includes discussion on resisting obvious solutions and its relationship to creativity and change.
The event is free and aimed at practitioners, researchers, policymakers and creative professionals who want to compare approaches across sectors. Organisers describe it as a forum for dialogue that crosses disciplinary boundaries.
House of Complexity will continue to develop its institute programme of courses and public lectures alongside client-facing design work and its ventures track for new tools and models.