Leadership in Complexity and Change

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.

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

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