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…brands live in four places – culture, environment, products, and the mind – and give us a blueprint to design systems that connect those spaces.

…the principles that undergird [mechanized] systems remain firmly embedded in the way organizations of all types approach management and leadership.

Because of the density of linkages, complex systems fluctuate extremely and exhibit unpredictability.

The reality is that small things in a complex system may have no effect or a massive one, and it is virtually impossible to know which will turn out to be the case.

…economic systems – the products of complex knots of human factors – confound linear attempts at prediction and control.

Attempts to control complex systems by using the kind of mechanical, predestinationist thinking… breaking everything down into component parts, or optimizing individual elements, tend to be pointless at best or destructive at worst.

…a robust protection against a known threat is not always sufficient; in complex systems, threats can flow from many places.

Resilient systems are those that can encounter unforeseen threats and, when necessary, put themselves back together again.

By embracing humility – recognizing the inevitability of surprises and unknowns – and concentrating on systems that can survive and indeed benefit from such surprises, we can triumph over volatility.

Functioning safely in an interdependent environment requires that every team possess a holistic understanding of the interaction between all the moving parts. Everyone has to see the system in its entirety for the plan to work.