Over the last month or so, I travelled much more than I often do to undertake a range of professional development for myself. I love learning, so these activities were a real treat! I wanted to share some of these experiences with you to give you a sense of where leadership development is heading in this increasingly uncertain world.

Change is hard, right?

Well, yes, but it is also a natural part of life, and it doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems to be within our organisations.

As living systems, we are each ‘coupled’ to the environment that we live and work in.

That environment comprises:

• The natural world as though it was separate from us, but in fact, is the Earth that we evolved from and with.

• The cultures we were raised in as children, the societies we have visited and learned from as adults and the organisational cultures we work within.

• The different institutional structures and systems that have emerged from our societal cultures are submerged in the pattern of collective unconscious assumptions about how the world works and should work.

Google this question and you will obtain a range of answers from different researchers. Most support the view that organisations need to be more open to taking risks to survive and thrive in these rapidly changing times.

In recent times we have been reminded by cyclones, floods, fires and pandemic that the world is crazy mixed up and uncertain. The uncertainty is growing. The impact of climate change, ecological breakdown, AI, and political instability …. All increase our sense of unfamiliarity and uncertainty in the way things are.

Well, it's been another year like the others in the 2020s! Pretty exhausting for many people.

We may well look back at these years as a turning point for many elements of our lives and workplaces. The turbulence is going to be ongoing and the pace of change is now exponential.

And within that disturbance are going to be opportunities!!!! It is exciting, and I can feel another Renaissance occurring (I wonder what history will call this period?). New books, new ideas and new ways of doing things are emerging everywhere. Just what we need!

I remain convinced that our major (adaptive) challenge is raising awareness and a sense of responsibility for doing things very differently - no matter the domain of your interest.

A few weeks ago, I spent a week immersed in the magnificent Daintree Rainforest's delights (and its mosquitos).  

I entered my holiday unconsciously stressed. Just before I left home, a work opportunity emerged. If I wanted to respond to this opportunity, I would need to work through my holiday. As I flew up on the plane on Friday afternoon, I was busy assembling a team. I was willing to put in the work required to respond, even though I resented the idea of giving up a big chunk of my holiday to do so.  

I determined to have at least my weekend to decompress a little and enjoy my time in a part of the world that I love so much.  

Over that weekend, surrounded by the natural world and with a self-imposed restriction on ‘doing anything’, a curious thing happened.   

I relaxed, walked, and stopped thinking.