INCOSE Los Angeles: Adaptive Enterprise Flywheel: Managing Complexity, Debt, & Uncertainty in Modern Systems Engineering
Live at The Aerospace Corporation, D8, 200 N. Aviation Bl., El Segundo CA 90245, Free supper; Zoom link provided after online registration.
INCOSE Los Angeles: Adaptive Enterprise Flywheel: Managing Complexity, Debt, & Uncertainty in Modern Systems Engineering
Date: 18 November 2025
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM Pacific US Time
Location: Live at The Aerospace Corporation, D8, 200 N. Aviation Bl., El Segundo CA 90245, Free supper; Zoom link provided after online registration.
Register Here!
Abstract: This talk introduces the Adaptive Enterprise Flywheel, a dual-layer model that integrates governance, portfolio management, and roadmapping (outer flywheel) with execution, specialty engineering integration, and risk retirement (inner flywheel). Connecting these layers are metafunctions such as standardization, decoupling, logical integration, and parallelization, which enable strategy and execution to reinforce each other rather than accumulate hidden liabilities. By embedding Design Structure Matrix (DSM) analysis into this framework, we can expose not only system characteristics — components, interfaces, and topological complexity — but also the meta-characteristics of debt: where uncertainty concentrates, where coupling creates fragility, and where governance gaps silently generate operational drag. Participants will leave with a practical mental model and vocabulary for connecting complexity metrics, technical debt management, and adaptive governance into a self-reinforcing strategy engine. In an era where systems must evolve continuously under uncertainty, the Adaptive Enterprise Flywheel offers a way to sustain momentum without compounding debt.
Bio: Garrett Thurston is a Principal Technical Fellow at Dassault Systèmes with over four decades of experience driving digital and model-based transformation in complex acquisition environments, particularly within the aerospace and defense sectors. A recognized leader in systems thinking, Garrett is widely known for shaping the adoption of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and digital engineering practices across both government and industry.