In this episode, host Dr. Aiden Thornton delves into the concept of complexity leadership with guest Dr. Kerry Elliott. Together, they explore how leadership has evolved to address today’s interconnected challenges, underscoring the importance of collective approaches and adaptive skills. Their conversation highlights the need for innovative tools and strategies to navigate complex environments, setting the foundation for deeper insights in the episodes to come.

In this episode, host Dr. Aiden Thornton explores the fundamentals of complexity theory with Shannan Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding complex adaptive systems—networks with many interconnected parts that exhibit emergent properties. West emphasises that these systems, such as cities, are more than just the sum of their individual components. He also discusses the Institute's unique structure, which fosters interaction among a small group of scholars and visitors, allowing for dynamic exchanges of ideas without the rigidity of tenure.

In this episode of the Leadership Navigating Complexity podcast, host Dr. Aiden Thornton speaks with Jackie O'Dowd, CEO of Realising Potential, about complexity leadership and its practical applications in today's business environment. Jackie shares her insights on the challenges faced by senior leaders, emphasising the struggle to align strategies, engage employees, and deploy technology effectively. She discusses the paradox leaders encounter between maintaining current customer satisfaction while preparing for future demands.

In this episode of the Leadership Navigating Complexity podcast, host Dr. Aiden Thornton speaks with Professor Christopher Pietroni and Dr Rachel Lilley about whether leadership truly makes a difference, particularly in the context of global populism and its impact on organisational narratives. The discussion delves into how leaders often resort to simplified, comforting messages to address complex issues, exploring the implications of this trend on both political and organisational levels. They examine the need for leaders to balance simplicity and complexity in communication, emphasising the importance of revealing genuine dilemmas to engage their teams effectively.

In this episode, the discussion delves into the fascinating intersection of neuroscience, leadership, and complexity. Dr Herrington brings her expertise in visual neuroscience to explore how the human brain processes patterns, textures, and the impacts of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. The conversation shifts to the intricate ways leaders' brains manage complexity, focusing on the critical roles of the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, and basal ganglia in metacognition, decision-making, and inhibition.

This episode also examines how stress influences problem-solving, emphasising the delicate balance between maintaining cognitive engagement and avoiding overwhelm. By understanding these dynamics, leaders can optimise their executive functioning and navigate complex challenges more effectively. Whether you're a leader, a neuroscience enthusiast, or simply curious about the brain's role in tackling complexity, this episode will inspire you to think deeply about how we approach leadership in an interconnected world.

In this episode of the Leadership Navigating Complexity podcast, host Dr. Aiden Thornton speaks with Dr Matt Barney & Professor John Antonakis about the challenges of accurately measuring leadership behaviour, differentiating it from mere perceptions, which are often influenced by biases. Dr. Barney discusses advances in AI that enable the capture of precise behavioural data, a "game changer" in leadership evaluation, while Professor Antonakis highlights issues around traditional behavioural assessments and the importance of understanding nuanced perceptions.

In this episode of the Leadership Navigating Complexity podcast, host Dr. Aiden Thornton speaks with Professor Katherine Daniell & Professor David V. Day. The conversation focuses on the distinctions between leader and leadership development, and between event-based, practice-based, and systems-based approaches to development. David highlights that while traditional leadership development focuses on individuals, effective leadership development should aim to enhance the collective capacity of groups or organisations, especially in addressing complex challenges. Catherine echoes this viewpoint, noting that her cybernetics program focuses on collective development, selecting entire cohorts rather than individuals to foster systemic change.

In this episode of Leadership: Navigating Complexity, host Dr. Aiden M.A. Thornton is joined by a distinguished panel of leadership scholars and practitioners to explore the evolving challenges of leadership in an era of rapid change. Featuring Professor David V. Day, Professor Samuel Wilson, Dr. Kerry Elliott, and strategist Scott Ko, the discussion delves into key issues such as social divisiveness, polarized thinking, epistemic complexity, and burnout in a world of constant disruption. The conversation examines the struggle to align diverse worldviews, the limitations of binary thinking and quick fixes, and the role of connection and shared meaning in fostering progress. With insights into the transformative impact of AI on leadership, this episode offers thought-provoking perspectives for leaders, strategists, and anyone navigating complexity in an ever-changing world.

ACMP ANZ Panel Discussion 31 March 2025
Topic: How can leaders and organisations skilfully adapt to our increasingly complex world?
Host: Peter Cully, President ACMP ANZ
Panelists: Dr Aiden Thornton, Megan Tyler, Rory van der Merwe
Facilitator: Brad Rilatt, Vice President ACMP ANZ

ACMP ANZ webinar on the implications of implementing GenAI for organisations, leaders and people

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Aiden Thornton to unpack what complexity actually is, why it's been increasing for thousands of years (in some ways- but not all!), and what it really means for how we lead.

In the first episode of our four-part mini-series, complexity leadership scholar and management consultant Dr. Aiden Thornton joins us to explore one of the most important and most misunderstood topics in leadership today.

Together we dig into the crucial difference between complexity and difficulty, why our instinct to simplify everything might be doing us more harm than good, and what leadership really is (hint: it's not a role or a title). Aiden also shares his definition of leadership as a process of influence that fosters systemic health, a reframe that might just change how you think about your own role, whatever level you're operating at.

Whether you're a seasoned leader, an emerging one, or someone trying to make sense of an increasingly complex world, this conversation is a powerful place to start.

In Episode 1 we established that complexity is increasing. Now we go one step further to ask: are we as humans actually built to handle this level of complexity? And what skills do leaders need to navigate it moving forward?

In Episode 2 of this mini-series, Dr. Aiden M. A. Thornton shares eye-opening research on the gap between what leadership roles demand and what most leaders are cognitively equipped to handle.

Then we go beyond the problem to explore the emerging leadership skills needed to thrive amid increasing complexity in today's hyper-connected, unpredictable world.

We cover:

• What 700 leaders revealed about the relationship between cognitive capacity and role complexity
• The key skills leaders need to navigate complexity effectively
• What regulating your own nervous system has to do with navigating organisational complexity

Whether you lead a team, drive change, or simply want to show up more effectively in an increasingly complex world, this episode will shift how you think about what leadership actually requires of us.

Something has shifted in society. Most of us can feel it, but few of us have the language to explain it.

In Episode 3 of my mini-series with complexity leadership scholar Dr. Aiden Thornton, we explore the topic of the culture wars, why our conversations across difference so often go nowhere, and what we can do about it as individuals and leaders.

You will come away with:

• Why people with different worldviews are not just disagreeing, but operating from entirely different realities
• Some of the major worldviews shaping today's culture wars and how to recognise them
• Why acknowledging diverse perspectives and pursuing true ones are not the same thing
• Practical tools for having more constructive conversations across deep disagreement

If you have ever felt frustrated, confused or exhausted by the state of public discourse, this episode will give you a clearer picture of why things feel the way they do, and a more grounded place to stand within it.

We talk about truth constantly, be it directly or indirectly. We invoke it in arguments, base decisions on it, and build entire worldviews around it. But how often do we stop to ask what truth actually is, why it matters, and how we can reliably identify it?

In Part 4 of our complexity leadership mini-series, Dr. Aiden Thornton and I dig into exactly that. Working through four core questions, we unpack what truth actually means, why it matters for how we lead and live, how to identify or at least approximate it, and why the question of who gets to decide what is true might be based on a flawed premise entirely.

We cover:

• The crucial difference between truth, belief and meaning, and why conflating them can cause more harm than we realise
• Why the truth of our beliefs is what allows us to interact with both our internal and external world
• How to match the right method to the right claim when trying to identify or approximate truth
• Why "who gets to decide what's true" is actually the wrong question entirely
• Why a mature understanding of truth may be a necessary condition for the survival of our species in the 21st century

You asked, we answered! This is the first of two bonus Q&A episodes following our four-part complexity leadership mini-series. Here, Dr. Aiden Thornton responds to your practical questions about leading in a complex world, addressing:

• The five issues Aiden has his eye on as the most complex challenges facing leaders today, from the future of AI and work to the role of truth
• A practical three-step framework for developing complexity leadership skills, and why daily practice often matters most
• How to start untangling complexity when everything feels complex at once, including what to look for and where to begin
• Why collective leadership is not automatically the best answer to complexity, and what the evidence actually suggests
• How to navigate conversations about the culture wars without shutting them down or causing unnecessary offence

Whether you are new to the series or have been following along from the beginning, this episode brings the concepts to life with concrete, actionable insights you can start applying today.

Can there be multiple truths? Is truth only something only science can establish? Do postmodern and critical social justice worldviews represent more advanced stages of adult development? And when leaders struggle to stay clear under uncertainty, are they hitting a complexity ceiling, or is something else at play?

In our first Q&A episode, Dr Aiden Thornton and I tackled the practical questions. Now, we go deeper to unpack some of the assumptions, ideas, and evidence that sit beneath complexity leadership practice.

You will come away with:

• A clearer understanding of what we mean when we talk about "truth" and why it matters for leadership in complex environments
• New ways to think about the relationship between truth, evidence, science, and lived experience
• Greater insight into the debate around postmodernism, critical social justice, and adult development
• Practical perspectives on what may be happening when people struggle to communicate clearly under uncertainty
• A deeper appreciation of how complexity leadership can help us navigate difficult questions without rushing to simple answers

From philosophy and leadership to adult development and communication, this episode explores some of the deeper questions that shape how we understand complexity and make sense of the world around us.

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Curiosity Mindset podcast.

In February 2024, the inaugural Leadership Development Summit was held in Tasmania, Australia. As a direct outcome, a white paper was produced identifying 5 major challenges: 1) Research-practice gap; 2) Divergent worldviews; 3) Challenges of leadership measurement; 4) Complexity and systems thinking; 5) Future of leadership development. In this limited series, I will be interviewing 5 people who contributed to the paper to reflect on what's changed since the 2024 summit, what new challenges are being experienced by leaders, and what they believe we need to be talking about at the next summit in December 2025, in Canberra.