The world needs leaders who can skilfully navigate the increasing complexity of the 21st century. This is necessary to successfully guide teams, organizations, businesses and broader networks of people through these challenges.
The Complexity Leadership Lab is a transdisciplinary research initiative led by experts in leadership, complexity science, systems, and cybernetics from the Australian National University (ANU), in collaboration with the Menzies Foundation. The lab brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and practice fields, including the ANU School of Cybernetics, the Research School of Management, the School of Regulation and Global Governance, and the Research School of Psychology, among others. Together, we are developing innovations in leadership thinking and challenging long-held assumptions about its nature and development.
Complexity leadership is an emerging field that views leadership as an outcome that arises from a complex set of conditions. It also recognises leadership as essential to navigating systemic complexities—technological, organisational, social, political, or environmental and their combinations. The mission of the Complexity Leadership Lab is to advance the field of complexity leadership, to play a critical role in shaping a positive future for our students, stakeholders, the country, and the world. We strive to take innovative approaches in advancing the theory, measurement, research, education, and practice of complexity leadership.
At the Australian National University our goals for the Complexity Leadership Lab include collaboration for academic excellence, synthesising cutting-edge theory, developing new instruments to measure leadership and complexity, conducting ground-breaking research, offering transformative educational experiences, and promoting evidence-informed leadership practices.
The first initiative undertaken by the Complexity Leadership Lab is the delivery of a Complexity Leadership Symposium on the 5th and 6th of December 2024.
To learn more about this project or the ANU Complexity Leadership lab, contact Dr Aiden M.A. Thornton or Associate Professor Maia Gould.
