Source: Embracing Complexity: Strategic Perspectives for an Age of TurbulenceWhat is easy to miss in saying all this is that embracing complexity can actually makes things easier, simpler, and more straightforward!
How much time gets spent by organizations making cases, forming detailed plans, completing analyses, and demonstrating outcomes?
How much of this really gets to the heart of the situation and really determines either what to do or what has been done?
Perhaps less planning but more experimentation would be not only more effective but also simpler?
Perhaps more focus on the initial selecting of good professionals, allowing them more autonomy to respond more effectively to the situations they are facing, would be less time consuming than the considerable efforts put in by managers to direct, measure, and control their performance.
If the world is complex, then acting congruently with that complexity can be simpler than trying to control a machine that does not exist.
Credit: Jean Boulton
Books: Jean Boulton (1)
Image Credits: Pixabay
(Pixabay)In-person, 7–11 September 2026, Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. Many leadership approaches still rely on control, expertise, and tools that no longer fit the realities people face.
This week-long immersive workshop brings people together to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience. It is not a training course but a space to slow down, think together, and explore how leadership emerges through dialogue, responsibility, and real engagement.