TheDaoofComplexity
My book of the year. Some books fill your head, some your heart, some educate,
some set you alight; Jean’s book does all of these.
Making sense
The Dao of Complexity starts with an intention to make sense of the nature of complexity, a complexity that shows up at all levels: the global, the organisational and the personal.
Embracing the world as complex will provide good guidance for how to live well, harmoniously and with resilience.
The inquiry begins with the physics of open systems, engages with other diverse bodies of knowledge, and leads to process complexity – a framing of the world as always in flow, sensitive to the uniqueness of each situation, a world in which unpredictable renewal and novelty can emerge.
Making waves
How should we act in a world of increasing connectivity, polarisation and fragility? What does this mean for leadership, change, governance and the way we conduct our personal lives? Making waves suggests that what emerges from our actions may not entirely be what we intended. We can make a difference, but we can’t march inexorably towards a chosen endpoint.
I include many stories and examples: the sagacity of leadership, the structuring of education, the dangers of over-reliance on rules, the importance of engendering trust. I explore the ramifications of hope and explore how to work with paradox without ‘going beige’.
I end by considering the ‘big’ global questions of our time – climate change, inequality, unrest – and ask what we need to do in response both as individuals and societies.
My intention is to bring alive the concepts embedded in complexity and offer perspectives that might engage your imagination, evoke your determination, and cause you to question your beliefs and motivations.
Why did I write it?
My motivation comes from my anxiety about the state of the world - global heating, rising inequality and increase in global conflict. I notice in business and politics a move away from the values of community, a lack of importance placed on integrity and truth, an unassailable focus on profit and on the short term, and a seeming unconcern about the precariousness of the future. In my lifetime, I have never been so concerned.
This book, then, is my form of activism. It is written in the hope that it changes minds about how to act, manage and consider the future, how to value others, value nature and see that we are all in this together.
Who is it for?
This book will be of interest to scholars and those striving for social change, as well as managers and policy makers looking for inspiration. The general reader interested in science, philosophy and ancient wisdom will find relatable material to explore how to engage effectively in this complex world.
Through helping us to change our beliefs and perspectives, it allows us to find new ways of being in a world that is increasingly complex, uncertain and connected – and new ways to make change.
The starting point
The seeds for the book were sown one day back in 2004. My colleague Peter Allen came in clutching a copy of the Dao de Jing, an ancient Chinese philosophical text. ‘Look’, he said, ‘the commentary reads just like a complexity theory textbook’. I was intrigued.
The question it raised for me was this: How is it that the cosmology or worldview emerging from complexity theory – with its roots in the science of open systems – is more or less identical to an experientially informed perspective developed in the Far East in the 4th century B.C.E? It struck me that if inquiries flowing from such unbelievably different starting points arrive at very similar destinations, then maybe we are homing in on something really important.
After that, I started to notice similar resonances with other bodies of knowledge – neuroscience, theories of personal development, early modern process philosophies. When I came across Carlo Rovelli’s views on quantum physics and quantum gravity, and that work also seemed to be reaching not-dissimilar conclusions, I really started to get excited.
Simultaneously, I discovered the work of political commentators who had lived through the rise and fall of various kinds of despotism. They, too, developed perspectives on this complex world that seemed very resonant.
