Van de Ven and Poole (1995) group the main theories of change to four groups:

1. Life cycle
2. Teleology
3. Dialectics
4. Evolution

The most interesting of these is #4, evolution. Viewed correctly, it actually encompasses all the others.

Other ways of describing how change unfolds:

• punctuated equilibrium
• crisis
• viral
• social movement
• learning
• serendipidity
• probabilistic
• revolution

However, change may be all of these things at the same time. It’s a fact that a dynamic system can produce both equilibrium and punctuations to the equilibrium; and we actually can’t know (in most cases) whether a system that’s outwardly stable will stay stable or wander off from the equilibrium point.

In other words: change, even radical change, may not require any changes in the system itself; only in its behavior. Complex systems are quite capable of producing complex behavior endogenously.