Cooplexity® Model
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Ricardo Zamora
Author of the Cooplexity® model, researching cooperation in complexity since 1995. Adjunct Professor at ESADE. Author of the book "Cooperation in Complexity".
Distributed Leadership Is the Goal
Distributed leadership refers to a spontaneous and interconnected set of initiatives. It is best understood as a collective ownership that emerges from effective teams.
Participative leadership is an intentional leadership style that facilitates its emergence. It reflects the leader's deliberate behaviour in creating the conditions for distributed leadership to flourish.
Both are interconnected, both structurally and functionally. Together, they challenge the traditional notion of leadership as a role-based function, emphasising that it is a cultural dynamic that must be deliberately nurtured throughout the organisation.
Impact: What do I achieve?
Cultural Transformation
Supporting cultural integration and implementing changes to align objectives and focus the organisation on customers.
Team Cohesion
Developing leaders and altering team dynamics to dismantle silos and enhance coordination both between and within teams.
Distributed Leadership
Fostering spontaneous and interconnected collective initiatives to align people's energy with corporate objectives.
Areas of intervention: Where does the work occur?
Trust
Motivate and encourage participation from natural or cross-functional teams. Recognise initiatives and contributions.
Structures
Share objectives, values, and strategy. Embrace diversity as a lever for shared leadership.
Competencies
Communicate messages, provide training, or develop skills. Learning simulations significantly enhance learning.
Context
The starting point.
Introduction to the model
Levels, steps, and levers of action.
A six-step framework for building trust within organisations. Validated with over 600 managers across 52 teams in 12 sectors, it accounts for 70% of collaborative performance.
Beyond VUCA
The new CUTE scenario
VUCA describes instability but provides no solution. CUTE (Complex, Uncertain, Cross-cutting, Ephemeral) highlights systematic cooperation as the answer in interdependent environments.
Level of Knowledge
Individual Level: "I know how to do it" (the catalyst is exploration).
First Step
Uncertainty Management
The first step of the model focuses on decision-making without certainty. Herbert Simon's procedural rationality helps us cope with anxiety through knowledge, not prediction.
Second Step
Relationship Management
The second step fosters connections through empathy and reciprocity. Emotional bonds come before coordination. Without genuine relationships, trust cannot exist.
Level of Cohesion
Group Level: "We want to do it" (the catalyst is the shared project).
Third Step
Interest Management
The third step balances legitimately different interests. Collaborative negotiation and a sense of fairness enable compromise without losing diversity.
Fourth Step
Management by Values
The fourth step raises the conversation from being merely useful to truly meaningful. When we act according to values, we collaborate; when we act solely out of self-interest, we compete.
Level of Self-Coordination
Organisational Level: "We are doing it" (the catalyst is interconnections).
Fifth Step
Change Management
The fifth step considers change as an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Cognitive diversity and psychological safety serve as drivers of organisational adaptation.
Sixth Step
Distributed Organisation
The sixth step ends with successful decentralisation. Local decisions align with the overall strategy. Leadership no longer remains a role but emerges as a property of the system.
Download essential documentation
Original research
Model poster
Structural elements
Critical competencies
Relationship map
