Research
There's a single pattern that emerges from my research: why do systems, whether a business, a team or a human body, so often behave in ways none of their parts intended?
Below are my published papers. Each one has a short plain-language summary, a link to the full paper and a note on how the idea shows up in my talks. Both papers are open access, so anyone can read them for free.
Frontiers in Systems Biology · 2026 · Perspective article
A framework for understanding mast cell activation syndrome from a complex adaptive systems perspective
Werner R. van Zyl and Sanchen Henning
In plain language
Why this paper is personal. It grew out of my own journey. For about 30 years I searched for the root cause of my symptoms, and learning to see my body as a system of interacting feedback loops is what finally helped me heal from MCAS. My story is one experience, not proof, which is why the article offers the framework as a starting point for research rather than as a treatment.
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) causes symptoms that move around the body, come and go, and fall between medical specialties. This article proposes seeing it as a complex adaptive system: the nervous system and the immune system keep disturbing each other through reinforcing feedback loops, while the body's calming processes try to bring it back into balance.
Seen this way, symptoms become a dashboard of the whole system, and health is not the absence of ups and downs but the ability to wobble and recover. The framework is meant to generate questions for future research, not to give clinical advice.
Where it meets the talks
Two parts of a system that keep responding to each other can turn a small disturbance into something neither part intended. That is the same pattern I make visible on stage with a guitar, an egg and simple interactive apps.
DOI: 10.3389/fsysb.2026.1980056
Computers (MDPI) · 2022 · Vol. 11, Issue 9, Article 128
A framework for knowledge management system adoption in small and medium enterprises
Werner R. van Zyl, Sanchen Henning and John Andrew van der Poll
In plain language
Small and medium businesses often invest in systems to capture and share what their people know, and then those systems go unused. This study asked why. Through focus groups with SME employees, it built a framework that combines technology, organisational, environmental and human behavioural factors, and identified nine themes that either encourage or block adoption.
The paper comes from my doctoral research for the Doctorate in Business Leadership (DBL) at the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership.
Where it meets the talks
A well-meant system that nobody uses is one of the clearest examples of what I call the problem with solutions: the fix changes the system, and the system responds in ways the fix did not plan for.
DOI: 10.3390/computers11090128
Want one of these ideas as a talk or guest lecture?
I turn research into live demonstrations for teams, classes and conferences, in English or Afrikaans.