This chapter discusses two models - the iceberg model and the process-structure model - for understanding organizational complexity. The iceberg model represents observable events as the tip of the iceberg, while the larger, unseen part below represents complex underlying structures. The process-structure model shows the recursive relationships between variables that generate behaviors. Both models refer to patterns - patterns of behavior and the patterns that generate behavior. The author argues that while the iceberg model is vertical and the process-structure model horizontal, they are complementary ways of representing an organization's internal and external structures.

1. The Structure of the Iceberg. Chapter of the Book: “La Dirección del Cambio Estructural: Perspectivas para Administrar la Complejidad
Organizacional” (The Direction of Structural Change: Perspectives on Managing Organizational Complexity). Alfonso Cornejo. 2013. Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW0IWWQ
The Structure of the Iceberg
By Alfonso Cornejo
Chapter of the Book: “La Dirección del Cambio Estructural: Perspectivas para Administrar la
Complejidad Organizacional” (The Direction of Structural Change: Perspectives on Managing
Organizational Complexity)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW0IWWQ
________________________________________________________________________________
One of the most recurrent images, when we try to understand the observed reality and
search for a logical explanation of its occurrence, is without any doubt the famous and
multi mentioned Iceberg Model, the one that says that the observed events (tip of the
Iceberg above the water) are provoked by complex phenomena not so easy to
understand or infer (biggest Iceberg volume under the water and not visible)
This image reflects in a simplified manner what in systems thinking can be translated
as observed reality and those structures and patterns, invisible to the naked eye, that
generate them.
Lately, I have repeatedly used this model during my courses to explain how we should
be very careful in searching for those structures that provoke the different behaviors
observed in the organization directly. With these audiences I like to reflect how culture
offers a rich patterns repertoire, that in many times, consciously or unconsciously,
begin to take shape to provide certainty of action, define and establish behaviors and
conducts as common paths of action.

2. The Structure of the Iceberg. Chapter of the Book: “La Dirección del Cambio Estructural: Perspectivas para Administrar la Complejidad
Organizacional” (The Direction of Structural Change: Perspectives on Managing Organizational Complexity). Alfonso Cornejo. 2013. Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW0IWWQ
I liked working with the Process-Structure Model as a complementary tool to
understand the complex range of behaviors and conducts within the organization. Its
recursive structure and feedback helps to explain the origin and behavior aftereffect
from the variables that cause them. After all, there are too many situations in the
organization that are ignored, they are taken for granted as disjointed and
disconnected, more by chance or coincidence than by causality.
In my courses, where I explain some concepts of managing organizational complexity
through different tools, I take support on the Model Structure and Process Iceberg
archetype as part of my tooling to facilitate the exchange of views and analysis
situations, leading to the identification of relevant patterns and structures.
Recently, reflecting on these models, I realized that the two models, the Structure-
Process Model and the Iceberg, both have some interesting parallels that previously
had not identified directly. My discovery of the common center point between the two
models: the patterns.
Both models refer to patterns. Patterns of behavior and patterns that generate
behavior. Repetitive patterns that govern behavior and largely explain recurring
phenomena in organizations. But there is more: both models talk about structures and
also show behaviors.
It seems that the paradigm that allowed me to not superimpose one image on top of
the other was that the figure of the Iceberg is vertical, while the Structure Process
Model is horizontal. However, the two models to be complementary, we say, are the
same. One is the internal structure and one the external structure.

3. The Structure of the Iceberg. Chapter of the Book: “La Dirección del Cambio Estructural: Perspectivas para Administrar la Complejidad
Organizacional” (The Direction of Structural Change: Perspectives on Managing Organizational Complexity). Alfonso Cornejo. 2013. Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW0IWWQ