Comment: This captures the essence of leadership as influence rather than authority. Systems Leadership and Conversational Leadership both depend on the ability to convene, listen, and connect across boundaries.Systems Leadership is about how you lead across boundaries – departmental, organisational or sector.
It’s how you lead when you’re not in charge, and you need to influence others rather than pull a management lever.
It describes the way you need to work when you face large, complex, difficult and seemingly intractable problems; where you need to juggle multiple uncertainties; where no one person or organisation can find or organise the solution on their own; where everyone is grappling with how to make resources meet demand which is outstripping them; and where the way forward therefore lies in involving as many people’s energies, ideas, talents and expertise as possible.
Credit: Debbie Sorkin
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. This week-long workshop offers a space to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience.