We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto

Recent scientific investigations into the behavior of complex dynamical systems are revealing insights that have major implications for expanding the uncodified, prevailing Cartesian/Newton/Enlightenment paradigm which underpins project management practice and research, insights amounting to new ways of thinking and talking about managing complexity and managing projects in ways that may resolve the intractable problems plaguing certain areas of project management. This paper examines a conceptual framework for understanding the complex responsive processes of relating (CRPR), a means of talking about how human beings interact and learn and how their interactions evolve over time and across space, discussing it specifically in relation to the lived experiences of project teams delivering complex projects.