complexity

Case study: guest lecture on systems change

September 30, 2025October 1, 2025
Case studies

Who: Black Mountains College, for their Systems Change course (2nd year) students. My role: I… Read More »Case study: guest lecture on systems change

A 2x2 matrix of discomfort x interest, but each quadrant is further divided into 2. Low discomfort + low interest: apathy / restore Low discomfort + high interest: plateau / flow High discomfort + low interest: resentment / grit High discomfort + high interest: burn out / growth

Reading 4

July 20, 2025July 24, 2025
Reading

This week’s 12 links: My time to read: 1 hour 15 minutes Credit: Stewarding Loss… Read More »Reading 4

A close up photo of a leaf, showing its intricate vascular system.

Everything is complexity

July 19, 2025July 20, 2025
New stuff

Not too long ago, I wrote a proposal for some relationship building for the senior… Read More »Everything is complexity

A tree in the foreground, on the shores of a misty lake. You can just about make out the woodland on the opposite shore, through the mist. It's autumn and this tree's leaves are shades of russet and gold.

Reading 3

July 12, 2025July 12, 2025
Reading

This week’s 12 links: My time to read: 15 minutes! An easy one this week… Read More »Reading 3

Barn raising in the USA - a group of people are working on the roof of a barn under construction, the wooden structure is in place for the walls and roof. In front of the building, a row of black buggies, without the horses.

Psychologically safe spaces

July 8, 2025July 13, 2025
New stuff

The Mint House invited me to facilitate a breakout room on the theme of ‘Creating… Read More »Psychologically safe spaces

A "Stacey Matrix". X axis is "realisation", which runs from clear to unclear. Y axis is "requirements", which runs from clear to unclear. Clear realisation x clear requirements = simple. Medium realisation x medium requirements = complicated. Unclear realisation x unclear requirements = complex. Beyond that, in the top right hand corner: chaos.

Reading 2

July 6, 2025July 6, 2025
Reading

This week’s 12 links: My time to read: 1 hour Image credit – Dr Stefan… Read More »Reading 2

Blach and white photo. Elspeth Beard astride her BMW motorbike, with large side and rear panniers (designed and built by her out of sheet aluminium and rivets), with a white helmet resting on the handlebars. She's wearing jeans, leather boots, and a leather jacket. She's parked up outside what looks like a warehouse, looking off camera.

Reading 1

June 28, 2025July 6, 2025
Reading

This week’s 12 links: My time to read: 1 hour 15 mins Image credit: Motorcyclist… Read More »Reading 1

Screenshot from a video by Cognitive Edge, showing Dave Snowden presenting the Cynefin Framework (a 2x2 matrix labelled complex, complicated, simple, chaotic).

Q&A with David Snowden

February 20, 2020September 22, 2024
Archive (old posts)

(Originally published in The Welsh Agenda #63, Autumn / Winter 2019) David Snowden is Director… Read More »Q&A with David Snowden

Public service operating principles, in two columns. See the main post for details.

Public service operating principles

August 15, 2019August 31, 2024
Archive (old posts)

(Originally published on Medium.) Last month I drafted a table contrasting the traditional command-and-control approach… Read More »Public service operating principles

A salmon jumping upstream over a small ramp in a fast flowing river

About salmons and whooping cranes

July 28, 2019August 31, 2024
Archive (old posts)

(Originally published on Medium.) Somewhere along my biologist training or my subsequent cross-disciplinary meanderings, I… Read More »About salmons and whooping cranes

Photo from part of the page of a book: Businesses as If They Had Souls In "Relationships: The New Bottom Line in Business", the first chapter of their book 'The Soul At Work', Lewin and Regine (2000) talk about complexity science: "This new science, we found in our work, leads to a new theory of business that places people and relationships - how people interact with each other, the kinds of relationships they form - into dramatic relief. In a linear world, things may exist independently of each other, and when they interact, they do so in simple, predictable ways. In a nonlinear, dynamic world, everything exists only in relationship to everything else, and the interactions among agents in the system lead to complex, unpredictable outcomes. In this world, interactions, or relationships, among its agents are the organizing principle" (pp. 18-19).

Everything exists only in relation to everything else

July 8, 2019August 31, 2024
Archive (old posts)

(Originally published on Medium.) Relationships are the organising principle. Reading Michael Fullan — Leading in a Culture… Read More »Everything exists only in relation to everything else