OrgDev with Distinction Leadership in Complex Systems with Dr Jean Boulton - OrgDev Episode 96
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Mar 13, 2026 Dr Jean Boulton, a theoretical physicist turned complexity scholar and strategy practitioner, joins to explore how complexity science reframes strategy, power and change. Short takes cover why traditional strategy fails in messy systems. Topics include patterning and history, sensing context before acting, balancing structure and improvisation, and designing organisations that scale adaptively.
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Organisations Behave Like Adaptive Families
- Organisations are like families: patterns emerge from many relational interactions and can be adaptive, rigid, or chaotic simultaneously.
- Focus on where patterns stabilise, where they unravel, and how history shapes persistent behaviours.
Apprehend Deeply Then Pilot Small
- Apprehend the rich context before acting: map past, present and emergent dynamics to spot hills, valleys and streams in the system.
- Then choose small pilots or focused interventions that align with those systemic opportunities.
Sell Diagnostics That Produce Safe Pilots
- Sell change work as diagnostic-enabled experimentation: charge for deep diagnostic engagement that already brings people along.
- Offer small pilots after diagnosis and walk away if clients insist on formulaic solutions.
