What 250 Women Leaders Taught Me About Complexity

Last week I had the privilege of speaking with 250 women leaders from across the public sector.

Early in the session, I invited them to share a complex challenge they were currently navigating.

From different places in the room, three participants shared their challenges:

• Change fatigue. The experience of change happening faster than people can absorb it, and the exhaustion that follows.

• Resistance. A hospital redevelopment with a looming go-live date and a clinical team where tension was rising, alongside the exhausted question of how to keep people on the journey.

• Reactivity. The frustration of seeing strategic work repeatedly overtaken by the next operational imperative.

As I listened, I realised that what I was hearing reflected the patterns of challenges I work with across the public sector.

Challenges that don't fit neatly within organisational boundaries or professional disciplines. Challenges where actions in one part of the system create consequences somewhere else. Where different groups are responding rationally to the realities they face, but still find themselves working at cross purposes. Where no one person can see the whole picture.

We explored an idea that has become central to making progress on challenges like these.

Many of us have been taught that progress begins with understanding the problem - break it into parts, develop a plan and execute. Those capabilities remain essential. But many of the challenges leaders are facing today don't yield to that way of working alone.

Sometimes what is needed first isn't a better plan, it's a different way of seeing.

Marcel Proust captured this beautifully:

the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

When we see more, we begin to notice the patterns, relationships and dynamics are shaping the challenge.

T.S. Eliot, in Four Quartets, writes of things that are

not known, because not looked for.

Present. Already there. Just outside the reach of our attention.

The patterns are already there. The dynamics shaping people's behaviour are already unfolding. The unintended consequences of yesterday's decisions are already rippling through the system. Whether or not we’re attuned to notice them.

Much of my work is about helping leaders expand that capacity. To see more of what's already here. To notice the relationships, patterns and dynamics that shape a challenge.

As our perception expands, so do the possibilities available to us.

We see connections that were previously invisible. We notice patterns that repeat across teams and conversations, relationships that are reinforcing the challenge. We begin to notice what's at stake for people, what’s being protected and what they’re being asked to give up.

We see more of what is present but not yet being spoken. And we have more choices available to us.

When the challenges we face are complex, the capacity to perceive more of the system becomes one of the highest leverage capacities a leader can develop.

We also explored what gets in the way of this capacity. I'll share more on that next time.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you. What's the complex challenge you're navigating right now? I'd love to hear what's alive in your world.

Warmly, Claire

PS When you're ready, here are some ways we can work together

1:1 Coaching — For leaders who want to develop their capacity to navigate complexity, lead with more presence, and find new possibilities in their most challenging work. We work at the edge of your knowing — where the real shifts happen.

Where the Map Runs Out — Masterclass Series — A new masterclass series for leaders ready to cultivate the capacity to see differently. Together, we'll develop the attunement, perception and practices needed to lead when familiar maps no longer fit the territory.

Complex & Strategic Facilitation — For teams and organisations working on challenges that cut across boundaries and resist simple solutions. I design and facilitate the conversations that help you see more of what's going on, so you can find new ways forward together.

Speaking — For conferences, leadership days, and gatherings of people who care deeply about the challenges we're facing and want to think differently about how to meet them. I speak on leading in complexity, perception shifts, and what it takes to find new possibilities in the polycrisis.