COMPLEXITY WORK
-
I don't fully know what the problem is yet... in fact, it's not a single root-cause problem anyway. More messy and layered.
-
We need to improve our decision-making. How can we trust our decisions if we can't see their consequences?
-
I need to find a safe way forward despite the uncertainty of the terrain ahead.
-
Our culture needs to change for us to survive – but it's complex and resists change.
-
How do I lead I when my expert knowledge doesn't provide answers?
Do you recognise this?
COMPLEX CHALLENGES
“It feels like everything is changing at once. I want clarity, but I don’t want to oversimplify.”
“I’ve done all the strategy sessions and leadership trainings, but things still feel messy and unpredictable. I’m looking for a way to work with that, not fight it.”
From a complexity perspective, coaching does not focus on isolated goals. It attends to the patterns, relationships, and constraints that shape how situations unfold.
In complex situations, ready-made solutions rarely hold. We work with the patterns and relational dynamics shaping the context so that effective action can emerge from a clearer reading of what is happening.
If familiar approaches no longer suffice, this work creates space to reconsider how you are positioned within the system and what becomes possible from there.
Whether you are deeply engaged in complexity thinking or encountering it for the first time, the emphasis is the same: developing orientation in uncertainty rather than control over it.
You will have the opportunity to explore your experience, recognise the dynamics at play, and respond with greater coherence.
This work reveals the systems you are part of, the relational patterns shaping them, and how these dynamics influence how you lead, relate, and live.
SENSE-MAKING
Sense-making is more than conversation. Sense-making involves working through what lies beneath the surface of what is being said. It is the deliberate effort to understand what is actually happening in a complex situation: what patterns are forming, what tensions are present, and how people are truly experiencing their work.
As our mentor, Dave Snowden puts it, "It’s about making sense of the world so we can act effectively within it."
In organisations, this means working with lived experience and emerging patterns, not just plans or assumptions. And the same approach applies wherever complexity shapes action; in leadership, governance, climate work or community building.
SENSEMAKER
See what’s really going on beneath the surface
SenseMaker® helps people share small, real-life stories about their everyday experiences. These stories reveal patterns, tensions and attitudes that often go unnoticed.
We don’t ask for opinions. We work with what people are already living – and make it easy to see what that tells us.
It’s a simple way to understand where things are now – and what small shifts could make a meaningful difference.
THE CYNEFIN FRAMEWORK
While the SenseMaker is one of our favourite real Complexity Tools, the best way to establish whether we are actually operating in the complex domain is through the Cynefin Framework. It's designed to help us understand the world so that we can act in it.
It is there to help us decide what type of system we are in, what type of methods and tools we can use there, and how we can move between the domains.
The most common mistake in leading, decision-making, consulting or organisational coaching is to mix up the domains and try to shift complex patterns as if they were single-cause complicated problems to solve.
