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Can only be understood holistically. Meaning is in the relationships and interactions, which are multiple and nonlinear (Snowden and Boone 2007). Complex systems are dynamic, unpredictable, and complexly stable (Marion and Uhl‐Bien 2001). They can be self‐organising around simple rules, e.g. flocks of birds in flight (Snowden and Boone 2007). Complexity is about ‘rich interconnectivity’ in that, ‘when things interact, they change one another in unexpected and irreversible ways’ (Uhl‐bien et al. 2017). Unlike complicated systems, complex systems cannot be divided back to unchanged parts (Levy 1993).

Our patients are complex systems and are in a state of constant disequilibrium that is managed by that process we know as homeostasis and where small deviations trigger feedback loops that can either create a return the old ‘stable’ state or, potentially, a whole new state (emergence). Deviation is allowed and, indeed, encouraged, and ‘failing small’ and reacting is far preferable to ‘failing big’ (Meadows and Wright 2009).

When thinking about human organisations that are complex systems, we must consider our ability to adapt roles and identities, knowledge of past responses, and our agency to change the system from within (Snowden and Boone 2007). Human healthcare systems have been categorised as complex and adaptive/responsive, and I believe the same argument can be readily made for the organisational world of veterinary professionals (Plsek and Greenhalgh 2001). Furthermore, these systems are open to influence and in relationship with the wider world. Rules of complex systems can be understood retrospectively but cannot be applied for the future when new patterns emerge. As Kierkegaard (1844) said, ‘Life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other principle: that it must be lived forwards’.