Cheryl May and Ryan J.A. Murphy
Complex missions challenge social purpose organisations to balance multiple, often competing, goals in environments shaped by uncertainty, pluralism, and change. In these contexts, conventional approaches to leadership and strategy may be ineffective—or may even undermine successful mission pursuit. This paper contributes a conceptual structure for complex mission pursuit by identifying the system conditions under which social purpose organisations can act strategically and systemically. By focusing on relational dynamics, emergent behaviour, and situated practice, we offer a foundation for future inquiry and organisational engagement with complexity through systemic design.
We conduct a conceptually guided review of the literature on social purpose organisations, drawing on grounded theory methods and conceptual framework development to identify 22 system conditions. These conditions are organised into four generative frames—purpose alignment, structural congruence, systemic leadership, and adaptive architecture—that reflect the interdependent and relational nature of organisations operating in complex mission environments.
We further examine how five core practices of systemic design—leverage, scaling, innovation, boundary, and scanning—serve as modes of organisational conditioning. These practices enable organisations to develop the internal capabilities needed for strategic coherence and systemic responsiveness. Rather than prescribing fixed solutions, they help shape the conditions under which adaptive, relational, and ethical responses to complexity can emerge.
We position this approach to strategy not as a tool for managing complexity, but as an organisational capacity that emerges through intentional design, iteration, and sensemaking. In this view, systemic strategy becomes a form of adaptive architecture—one that supports alignment and coherence without demanding control or uniformity.
Keywords: systemic strategy, systemic leadership, complex missions, social purpose organisations, relationality, hybrid organisations, purpose-led business, abductive reasoning