Futurists have been heralding the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution for some time. However, it wasn’t until the recent multiple cataclysmic events (natural disaster, pandemic, war), which caused huge disruption to existing structures such as supply chains, and accelerated the uptake of some digital technologies designed to respond to these events, that we have started to appreciate the emergent future in which so many of the systems we use and depend on are powered by data and digital technologies at scale. There is a lot of anxiety about this emerging future, so how can we use leadership to steer towards not only surviving this future, but thriving in it?
Powered by the Menzies Foundation, the School of Cybernetics is undertaking research into Cybernetic Leadership, and designing a learning program around those insights to equip Australia’s current and emerging leaders to navigate the fast, smart and interconnected world they are inheriting, and to shape its future state.
The goals of our program change some long-held assumptions about leadership. Our Cybernetic Ledership program is about other people rather than the individual leader. It is about influencing rather than controlling systems. It is about finding comfort in complexity. It pays attention to the past as well as the future. And it is about both self-awareness and context-awareness.
The design and development of the program will be informed by new research and elements of our existing education programs. It will examine the role of change-makers in the system over time, including exploring the pathways taken by alumni of change-making programs like the Master of Applied Cybernetics.
To learn more about this project, contact: Maia Gould, Strategic Services Lead
