Continuing on the theme proposed by Tony Joyce (and including his thoughtful contributions), any management practice is designed to achieve certain objectives. Lean is designed to eliminate waste. Process engineering is designed to improve efficiencies by driving out variation. The means to that end is to identify and follow highly standardized process and rigid control with the objective of predictability. In process engineering variation is "a problem" when it exceeds the narrow threshold of control, such as six sigma's, for the process. However, in a complex adaptive system, such as an organization, variation is not only a given condition - it is desirable! Further, the ability to experiment with different variations fosters the kind of creativity that leads to new solutions and innovation. Experimentation is crucial, yet experiments are also process changes that can easily exceed the narrow threshold of control, such as six sigma’s, for a process. As a living systems approach VNA better supports healthy experimentation to find the optimal “flow paths” for processes, value and human intelligence. Further, the ability to experiment with different variations fosters creativity, new solutions and innovation. The objective of VNA then is not to predict outcomes but rather to assure a high degree of probability of beneficial outcomes. Healthy value networks have a deep capacity to absorb and embrace variation. The advantages are greater resilience, agility, learning and responsiveness. Adaptive organizations also require open flows of intelligence in the form of human communication and sense making. Intangible value exchanges, such as expertise and support, open the important innovation pathways needed in complicated product processes and complex customer/supplier ecosystems. These intangible activities, however, are typically ignored in process engineering approaches. VNA maps and optimizes these mission critical intangible exchanges where real humans need to interact with each other in order to make processes work. VNA therefore situates engineering processes in a next order of complexity – that allows optimization of flow paths and variation. VNA enables seamless “natural” experimentation and flow path selection - in a way that still drives toward beneficial outcomes and sharp business improvement. | 
