I’ve had a busy and interesting summer, including a fair bit of down time and travel.

One of the very positive outcomes of writing The Dao of Complexity is the new connections I make and the new avenues that open up. I’ve had extended conversations with people from all over the world, keen to discuss their research and experience, and share what has emerged for them from the book. Topics have included: systemic psychotherapy, ethics, hope, peace, dialogue, the collective unconscious, nature, the body, education, evaluation, leadership and, of course, Daoism. I absolutely love these conversations and the ideas they spark, the insights into others’ lives – as well as new friendships!

I’ll mention three particular highlights:

I’ve been engaged with Juliet Daye and Katy Kent who hold Regathering events. These retreats focus on the emerging and increasingly precarious future and ask – how do you feel, what do you need, what can you do? Playing a role in spaces such as these that span heart/mind, past/future, conscious/unconscious – and do so in an experiential, embodied way – I find very fruitful, nourishing and rewarding. And rocking up in such contexts refines and enriches what I say (about the complexity of the world) and how I say it.
Someone sent me a book of haikus, written by members of a community who regularly visit and swim in a particular lake. Each of the 52 haikus accompanies a photo of the lake – taken, one each week, over a year. It brought me back to the way poetry can capture a sense of what is happening that ‘left-brain’ language cannot. This is a theme I touch on in The Dao of Complexity – poetry and art as aspects of ‘ways of knowing’ in a complex, interwoven, emergent, processual world. And, incidentally, it has got me writing haikus again and linking them to photos I’m taking!
I’ve been asked to lecture on Daoism. I am really enjoying planning this. In addition to what I have written already, I want to explore in more depth the foundations of Tai Chi and Chi Gong – which is being illuminated, both in words and movements, by the teacher of my Chi Gong class.

Upcoming events

I’m speaking at Kairos in London on October 23^rd. More information and sign up in the link. It should be a lovely evening, with food!
I’m doing an online workshop in November on Living with Complexity: Systems Thinking and Poverty Reduction. It is being hosted by Vibrant Communities Calgary. It is for their community so not open to others and I am delighted to have been asked.
We were planning a conference in London late November on Complexity and the Social World, but we have postponed this until next year. However there will be a smaller event at the University of Bath on November 27^th, 2-4pm. It won’t be online but do sign up if you are near Bath. Neil Gilbride will speak about the work he has done with Professor Chris James on Complexity and Integrative Leadership and I will give a more general input on complexity. Chris sadly passed away last year, and this event is in part a tribute to his work.

Writing

I have several half-written blogs in relation to complexity thinking – the imagination, beauty, the history of antibiotics (a wonderfully path dependent complex story), how we no longer have politics only economics, what’s limiting about the notion of ‘complex adaptive systems’. Watch this space… And my real interest is in exploring more deeply the link between the conscious and the unconscious – where Jung and Bohm and Scharmer maybe meet Complexity!

Past recordings

I’ve just added a number of new recordings of conversations and talks which can be found here. They range from the global to the local, from theory to practice, from personal to organisational; take a look.

And I’d still like to shout out about Bernard Tannett, who makes animated versions of the books his book club reads. Here is his version of Embracing Complexity. But there are many others, well worth watching.