Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead

by Jennifer Garvey Berger, Carolyn Coughlin

There is a complexity paradox that we all need to understand. We humans have a natural inclination towards connection, engagement, and creativity – all necessary skills to thrive in complexity. The problem is that the stress caused by uncertainty and ambiguity makes it difficult to tap into this inclination when we need it the most. This book offers a set of practices that help you not only understand complexity but actually hack into your own nervous system to bring your natural capacities back online. By paying close attention to your body, redefining your emotional experiences, and connecting more deeply to others, you can transform the anxiety, exhaustion, and overwhelm that complexity creates. Better still, as you unleash your natural complexity genius, you create the conditions for those around you to flourish in an uncertain world.

Genres: Leadership, Business

168 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not that everything that Garvey Berger writes will get 5-stars, but that everything she writes feels important, applicable, and straightforward. This book focuses on a different side of complexity -- not the world out there, but the inner world that also impact how we navigate complexity. Many of the practices are not novel, but how they are framed to connect to other principles you've learned in other related books. Like the previous books, I see many reads of this one as I try to incorporate all of the principles!

[Margaret Grabowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a leadership book, as it centers on embracing the physical and emotional human experience while working to improve complex systems.

In this book, the authors dig into the truism that leading others begins with knowing and changing our selves. They explain how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems respond in situations of calm and stress, and they share exercises and strategies that we can use to train our nervous systems to respond in ways that serve us. They point out that in complex systems, the conditions are working perfectly to generate the results that are occurring. Rather than providing cookie-cutter formulas or solutions, they describe “gems” that leaders can use to create the conditions for change to occur in these systems. This book deepened my understanding of myself as a human and changed my mindsets around leading in complex systems.

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complexity is one of the most important frameworks to help me understand life, make meaning amidst challenges, navigate ambiguity, and lead. Jennifer Garvey Berger makes complexity accessible and actionable, and this book is one I'll come back to often and recommend highly to others. The following is a good summary:

"Complexity is defined by change and uncertainty and interdependence. Anxiety is often created by change uncertainty and interdependence. But learning and delight area also about change and uncertainty and interdependence. The experimenting genius means working with our nervous systems so that we are not tossed into the miseries and grasping of our anxiety but are instead lifted by the delights of our humanity."

[Paula J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quick, easy, science backed read to help support teams or individuals in their journey to ground themselves as they attempt to solve the world's problems - from their own organization's issues to global issues. It starts with physiology and presencing and moves into exercises and case studies for how to bring these principles into common organizational behavioral issues. A great palette cleanser as we all reset expectations and way of doing remote work post Covid.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think some who read this book and Berger's previous book (Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps) conflate the straight-forwardness and practicality of these resources with simplicity. What they may not understand is the depth of knowledge and research about managing complexity that they sit upon. Maybe these tools are simple. Yet they are essential to thrive in these challenging times.

[Eric Nehrlich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Berger's Changing on the Job, but this book (and the previous book) have been disappointments. Quick read but so simplistic and shallow that I have basically forgotten it despite having finished it five minutes ago. Oh well.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tips for working with your brain in mind.

[Srikanth Ramanujam · Rating 2 out of 5]

don’t know who this book is for

Very light on detail. Tons of gems with zero pathways to get there. Habits change action that may change behaviour. No tools or methods. Looks like Jennifer or Carolyn has to be with you full time to take you on that pathway. There seems to be a lot of what works for one will work for others. Like: fix your sleep! What kind of book is this and who is it for? I’m confused after reading it

[Rebecca Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today's world is ever more unpredictable from business matters to the day-to-day, and it's hard not to feel ill-equipped to face its challenges. This slim, super-readable book provides accessible practices you can try immediately help you cope better and even flourish.