There is a wicked question all leaders must eventually confront: How can we best address the needs of the organisation while addressing the needs of the individual? The wickedness of this question increases as we more deeply appreciate the complexity of the world in which organisations and people operate.
Jennifer Garvey Berger and Carolyn Coughlin’s “Unleash Your Complexity Genius” points a way forward to both better engage with and apprehend the world around you and inside you.
What to expect from the resource.
This book addresses the question: what is our complexity genius and how do we make best use of it for ourselves and others? Bob Kegan describes the book as a “self-directed workshop” that you can experience at your own rhythm and speed. The book explores
- how we biologically work as human beings and how that impacts our response to complexity,
- how general principles of complexity affect us, and most importantly,
- how to switch from a complexity autopilot to your complexity genius.
And all of that in an easily read 157 pages.
The authors then go on to explore the key components of our complexity genius:
- Presence
- Breathwork
- Mindfulness
- Experimentation
- Laughter
- Relationships and love
What we love about it.
The functional vignettes at the start of most chapters set relevance and a simple context for each chapter. Each topic is thoughtfully explored in a pragmatic way. We humans may be complex, but there are simple tools which, when applied, make a huge difference in how we experience the world. Above all, the book is pragmatic and actionable. And summer is a perfect time for developing personal practices to grow your capacity to be with and work with the complexity within, and around you.
Why it matters to leadership in organisations.
We take a stand for everyone having the capacity to be a leader. Which means if people can lead from anywhere, organisations can have leadership everywhere. For that to besomething more than a trite slogan, organisations need to give people the tools to develop their outer AND their inner leadership capability. Organisations also need to create a paradigm where leadership is encouraged rather than squashed by old top-down models of leadership.
