Recursiveness: A Key Design Concept for Transforming Organizations from Centralized Hierarchies toward what Militaries Hark as ‘Mission Command’ and ‘Mutual Trust’ in Complex Warfare Contexts (using Whitesnake lyrics and a Friends Episode)

From time to time, I will post some light-hearted design thoughts as well as offer up some techniques in teaching design to military, governmental and other agencies that need to work and think in socially complex, dynamic security contexts. These stem from my own work as a design educator, theorist and facilitator where I have worked with Special Operations Forces, international militaries, NATO, war colleges, government agencies, health and human services, law enforcement and more. Sometimes, using a fun pop culture reference is a gate-way drug to opening up new understanding of what can sometimes be an off-putting or dense new concept. In this Medium post, I introduce the design concept of ‘recursiveness’ with a Friends episode and a classic Whitesnake video. There are few academic references below except the essential ones, and some links to related content should a reader be inclined for more.

Recursiveness is not a common term offered in design workshops, nor does one find it in any existing military design doctrines, and on the commercial side of the design equation, one must hunt far and wide to find any specific mention of it. Karl Weick, Christopher Ansell, Haridimos Tsoukas, Douglas Hofstradter, Donald…