{"id":5624,"date":"2026-03-15T14:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crmknowledgehub.com\/?p=5624"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:38:09","slug":"complicated-vs-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crmknowledgehub.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/complicated-vs-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"Complicated vs Complex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SOURCE: 1-MINUTE INSIGHT FROM <a href=\"https:\/\/ergonomics.org.uk\">CIEHF<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/institute-of-ergonomics-and-human-factors\/posts\/\">LinkedIn<\/a><br><br>This one minute insight posted by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors on its LinkedIn page addresses an important distinction in human factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Just because something is complicated doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s complex. This is an important distinction in human factors.<br><br>A complicated system has many parts, but they fit together in <strong>predictable<\/strong> ways. Think of something like a watch, a tax form or a washing machine: fiddly, detailed, technical but if you understand the components, you can make it work.<br><br>A complex system is different. It also has people in it &#8211; interacting, adapting, improvising, creating workarounds. It has <strong>many other interacting elements<\/strong> and outcomes that are <strong>harder to predict<\/strong>. Healthcare, aviation operations and emergency response are complex systems.<br><br><strong>In<\/strong> <strong>complex environments small changes may have unexpected effects<\/strong>, situations can evolve quickly but most importantly, people are resilient and constantly adapt to keep things working.<br><br>If we design as if everything is complicated rather than complex, we end up with rigid processes that fall down the moment real life shows up becuase its messy and unpredictable.<br><br>So understanding the difference between complicated and complex is important and this is a key strength of human factors. It has the tools and techniques, and the expertise in its professionals, to study and understand complex systems.<br><br>What examples have you got that illustrate the difference between complicated and complex?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-green-cyan-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/ergonomics-humanfactors-complexsystems-share-7435253818830852096-HNkp\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_ios&amp;rcm=ACoAAAvfVhUBHUfK-_UZozXFJxPU-vBMJemitrs\">FOR ACCESS TO THE ORIGINAL POST FROM CIEHF &#8211; CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just because something is complicated doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s complex. This is an important distinction in human factors. This one minute insight was posted by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crm-principles-objectives","category-human-factors-in-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Complicated vs Complex - The CRM Knowledge Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The difference between Complicated v Complex is an important distinction in human factors.\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crmknowledgehub.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/complicated-vs-complex\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Complicated vs Complex - 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