Leading in Complexity 2024 : An Initial Enquiry in Tasmania

A new report by Tasmanian Leaders highlights the increasingly complex role of leaders across all industries.

Leading in Complexity 2024: An Initial Enquiry in Tasmania by complexity leadership expert Dr. Aiden M. A. Thornton delves into the distinctive challenges and opportunities for developing leadership within the Tasmanian context. Through an in-person workshop and survey, the report draws on the experiences of dozens of leaders across multiple sectors, to illustrate the challenges of leading productively and inclusively in today’s environment.

The report explores 14 essential complexity leadership skills ranging from self-awareness and resilience to systems thinking and digital competency. Recommendations include embedding these skills into educational and leadership programs, fostering collective leadership development, and establishing conflict resolution frameworks to address polarisation and competing priorities.

Key takeaways:

• Tasmanian leaders grapple with complex systems, entrenched structures and competing priorities in a tightly interconnected state
• Outdated systems, socio-economic disparities, and limited resources hinder bold and adaptive leadership
• Leaders must adopt systems thinking, collaboration, digital and technological competency, and innocation to effectively navigate complexity while balancing preservation and economic progress.

About the Author

Complexity Leadership Expert. Entrepreneur. Relentless Seeker of Objective Truths

Dr Aiden M. A. Thornton is a complexity leadership expert, management consultant, psychometrics entrepreneur, and street epistemologist.

As a complexity leadership expert, Aiden holds an interdisciplinary PhD in leadership, complexity, and cognition and serves as the Inaugural Menzies Senior Research Fellow in Leadership and Complexity at the Australian National University’s School of Cybernetics. He is part of the ANU Complexity Leadership Lab and his work spans the theory, measurement, research, education, and practice of complexity leadership. He applies principles of cybernetics, systems thinking, and complexity science to making sense of leadership and its development.

As a management consultant, Aiden has over 25 years of international experience across Australia, Asia, and Europe, working with top-tier consulting firms and blue-chip organisations. He has led large-scale and multi-million-dollar programs, and currently runs his own consulting company that specialises in leadership development, change management, organisational culture, and organisational design.

As an entrepreneur, Aiden is establishing a psychometrics company that offers an innovative suite of instruments that measure different aspects of leadership. His mission is to introduce more rigorous and sophisticated measurement approaches to the science and practice of leadership development.

As a street epistemologist, Aiden is deeply engaged in creating conditions in which diverse social groups can participate in discussions about controversial socio-political issues. His work in street epistemology focuses on enquiring into what people believe, why they hold those beliefs, and their underlying epistemologies.

Aiden is an active political centrist, an enthusiastic member of Heterodox Academy, and is deeply committed to classical libertarianism. Aiden brings a unique blend of intellectual intensity, pragmatism, and wicked humour to his work.

Follow Aiden on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aidenmathornton/