Life is given to each of us individually, but no human can live entirely alone. Life is personal, yet also deeply interdependent. Our opinions may be rooted in our own lived experiences, but they come to life when they are supported and accepted by others. Each individual forms opinions based on their unique circumstances—and today’s circumstances are filled with complexity and constantly shifting.
What do we mean by “complexity”?
Complexity describes situations or conditions where the underlying order is not easily visible. As living beings, humans must continually shape a future that favors their survival. We need to anticipate whether the weather will turn cold, whether a predator will appear, where food might be found, or whether fine dust will be heavy in the air. Simply reacting to what is happening now is not enough.
From our earliest ancestors onward, survival has always depended on predicting the future. We cannot visit the future directly, so we look for patterns, rules, and causal relationships to anticipate it. If we throw a ball (cause), we know it will travel through the air (effect) because we understand the underlying principle.
Once we identify a cause–and–effect relationship, we can choose present actions that will create the future we want. This is how knowledge leads to advantageous decisions, and in essence, how we try to shape the future. Cause and effect form a chain: one outcome becomes the cause of the next.
For example:
- If you shoot an arrow (cause) and hit a deer (effect/cause), you catch the deer (effect).
- Catching the deer (cause) means you can eat (effect/cause).
- Eating sustains your life (effect).
Each step is both the result of a previous cause and the cause of a future result. Our thinking is woven from countless such chains.
Cause-and-effect knowledge is what we call “understanding” or “theory.”
Humans use this understanding to take action—what we might call the game of life—to create favorable outcomes. Before every action comes a decision. You decide to hunt a deer, you pick up a bow because you know it is more effective than bare hands or a knife. This choice reflects knowledge, alternatives, and selection among them.
Of course, decisions are only “right” until new information emerges. In a fast-changing, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, alternatives change constantly. Information and knowledge show us which causes are most likely to bring about the results we want.
Even though we live only in the present moment, knowledge compresses time—it contains the delays and chains of causality—helping us act now in ways that produce desired results later. In that sense, knowledge is power over the future, and learning is the act of gaining that power. This applies to both individuals and organizations.
Complexity and the Limits of Predictability
Complexity weakens our ability to control the future. In a complex system, one cause can lead to many different results. Raising salaries might improve motivation—or it might prompt employees to look for new jobs, or simply increase their spending. The outcome is unpredictable.
In a VUCA environment, people rarely have all the information they need to predict the future, and the knowledge they do have is often insufficient to fully grasp the situation. In other words, finding “the one correct answer” is increasingly difficult—sometimes impossible.
Yet decisions must still be made. Without decisions, there is no action; without action, there is no survival, no results. To make good decisions, we need both a willingness to seek richer information and the discipline to let go of the obsession with finding the perfect answer.
Instead, we should aim for “one viable answer.”
One Viable Answer
This term, coined to introduce a new concept, is shorthand for the one answer we ultimately choose when faced with a problem—acknowledging that it may not be the absolutely correct answer.
It reflects a reality: humans cannot always know the perfect truth, but we must keep making decisions to live. In a VUCA environment, organizations often face situations where the “correct” answer cannot be found—yet a choice still has to be made.
This mindset shift—from obsessively seeking the “right” answer to choosing a viable answer—frees us to act. Even if a perfect solution exists, the odds of discovering it are low, and the world changes so quickly that an answer found too late may be useless.
This is not about giving up the pursuit of truth—it’s about the wisdom of acting despite uncertainty, while still valuing truth as an ideal.
The opinions that emerge from our instinct for survival are valuable resources. When members of a group reach a conclusion through consensus, the outcome is often the closest we can get to truth in practice. That is what “one viable answer” means.
Facilitation is the disciplined, structured approach that helps groups arrive at such an answer efficiently and effectively.
