Leadership in Complexity and Change
Description
If we needed a reminder that the world is complex and in constant motion, then 2020 certainly delivered. Suddenly, the inherent uncertainties and ambiguities of leadership were starkly revealed for all to see as the dynamics of complexity and change played out intensively, and very publicly, on the global stage.
Leadership in Complexity and Change draws on complexity science to paint a picture of a world in constant motion, where leadership is enacted in the midst of complexity and continuous change. We must learn to engage with complexity. If not now, when?
Part I of this insightful book brings complexity science to life by considering the practical challenges of complexity and its implications for leadership. Part II considers how leaders can reinvigorate existing tools and approaches with a new mindset, before offering some new tools and practices for learning informed leadership. Part III concludes by considering the person in the practice of leadership in complexity and change. Key ideas are presented through mini-cases and practical examples embedded throughout the book.
This book will help executives, managers, and professionals
- recognise where some of the challenges come from
- understand why those challenges persist
- engage with the dynamic patterning of organisational life
- appreciate the scope for leadership
- recognise the choices that can be made
- choose how to manage themselves
Events around the book
Link to a De Gruyter Online Event in which the author Sharon Varney together with Jean Boulton, Leading authority on complexity theory and its implications for the social world, and Ian Rodwell, Head of Client Knowledge and Learning at Linklaters LLP, discuss what it means to be an effective leader in an uncertain world and that one should develop the ability to keep an eye on the emerging future:
https://youtu.be/vSi732fdqbc
Reviews / Votes
"The book takes us on a journey into how this can enrich and lift the way we think and act while changing and leading organisations."
--Bernd Vogel, Professor in Leadership and Founding Director of Henley Centre for Leadership at Henley Business School
"This is the best book I have read on complexity and leadership. It is very accessible and yet does not shirk from providing a clear account of the theory. The implications for change and leadership are nuanced and rich and practical at the same time. And I like the focus on the individual and what it means for personal practice. Highly recommended. This is a difficult topic to tackle as every author takes different meanings from complexity and weaves in different strands; there are some assertions I might argue with, but this is also a strength and an inevitability in tackling the complex topic of complexity. There is much to inspire, to engender debate and further study as well as to offer new perspectives, new insights and practical actions".
--Dr Jean Boulton, lead author of Embracing Complexity
"This book is a revelation and will be a must for anyone wanting to understand how to take an insider view of leadership and change in today's fast-changing and ambiguous times. With marvellous clarity Dr Sharon Varney lays bare the essence of complexity thinking as it applies to leadership, bringing theory vividly to life with rich case studies and key insights. The book challenges management orthodoxy - in complexity leaders are not in control of what happens, but like everyone else, leaders are active participants in the entangled web of formal and informal relationships, what Sharon calls the dynamic patterning of organisational life, full of paradoxes, power play and anxiety. Moreover, all models are wrong, including models of strategy and leadership because models are simplifications of our complex reality. And yet they have their place, as Sharon points out, when used appropriately to open minds.
Sharon encourages the reader to embrace complexity thinking, to spot the vital signs, including weak signals of emerging trends and to truly notice the social patterning (i.e., the history of choices made in a particular context) that also enable and constrain behaviour. And, while complexity is inherently paradoxical and there are no easy answers, as the author suggests, this is good for the system because it spurs adaptation. Sharon's call to spread the thinking is well made: "Let us empower ourselves and others to bring leadership in complexity and change into the mainstream of thinking and practice. If not now, when?"
--Dr Linda Holbeche, Adjunct Professor, Imperial College Business School
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Person
Sharon Varney is a scholar-practitioner who specialises in developing people and organisations. Sharon developed her deep expertise in leadership and change working in large, complex organisations.
She was Vice President for international learning and development at a US bank, before joining a global engineering and construction company in the offshore oil and gas industry as their group head of learning and communications.
In the early 2000s, Sharon was bitten by the complexity bug. This changed the trajectory of her career and she left the offshore business to take a deep dive into academia. Her award-winning doctoral research, which has a very practical edge, explored the complex dynamics of organisational change and the role of change leaders within it.
Sharon now effectively bridges academia and practice. Working across a wide variety of business settings, she applies complexity science insights in her leadership and organisational development (OD) work. This includes bringing thought and practice leadership to The Henley Forum, an applied research centre at Henley Business School, and to Masters' programmes at Henley and beyond.
Content
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The introduction briefly introduces complexity science, the science of uncertainty, explaining why and how it is so useful to leaders. It then briefly outlines the structure for the book, explaining the focus of the three parts.
PART 1 - The changing landscape for leadership and change
PART 1 paints a picture of the changing landscape for leadership and change. It explains how the working world is qualitatively different now and why that matters for leadership and change.
Chapter 1 - In constant motion
This chapter sketches out the new landscape for leadership and change:
Is it just me? Challenges of a world in constant motion
From change to changing. From organisations to organising
The death throes of change management
Leadership assumptions that have had their time
What does this mean for leadership and change?
Chapter 2 - Complexity, straightforwardly
This chapter offers a straightforward view of key concepts from complexity theory by relating them to real-world organisational challenges facing leaders:
Help! Complexity is complex. Can we just simplify things? (Entanglement)
Avoiding nasty surprises. Your key leadership dilemma (Uncertainty)
Haven't we been here before? The illusion of stability (Patterning)
Let us turn back the clock! Why complexity is a one-way street (Emergence)
What does this mean for leadership and change?
Chapter 3 - Leading in the midst of change
This chapter positions leaders in the midst of change and explores their leadership potency:
Yes, it does matter what you say and do
You've got to be in it to change it
Why change is every leader's job
Making sense of the Dynamic Patterning of change
What does this mean for leadership and change?
PART 2 - Tools & techniques for leadership and change
PART 2 begins by considering how we can invigorate existing tools and techniques with a new mindset. It then offers some new tools and techniques for leadership in complexity and change.
Chapter 4 - Applying complexity thinking
Why how we think about what we do matters a lot:
Better to be roughly right, than precisely wrong
Plausibility
Provisionality
Experimentation
Questions, not answers
Chapter 5 - Noticing weak signals
It all starts with noticing:
For the want of a horseshoe nail
The power of small, human-scale data
Slowing down thinking
We each see part of the picture
Noticing at multiple levels
Chapter 6 - Spotting the vital signs of change
New tools for noticing:
Events and why they matter
Changing patterns of relations
Changing patterns of attention
Changing patterns of emotion
Taking a systematic approach
Chapter 7 - 'Catching reality in flight'
Making sense of what is changing as it is changing:
Emerging issues and opportunities
Patterns, meta-patterns and false patterns
Paradoxical thinking - both/and
Power of other perspectives
Provisionality, again
Chapter 8 - Informing your leadership responses
Applying informed leadership:
What you say and do matters
Cues and signals
Managing the stage
Unintended consequences
Keep on keeping on
PART 3 - Leadership and change practice
PART 3 explores the practice and practices of leadership and change.
Chapter 9 - It starts with you
Leadership is personal:
Self-as-instrument - what it means and why it matters
Reflex, reflection and reflexivity
Responsible leadership
Ethical practice
Authentic leadership
Chapter 10 - Practices of leadership in complexity and change
Putting the thinking into practice. How practitioners are doing it:
Managing energy
Collaborative leadership
The art and science of nudging
Managing the stage