Inaugural Lecture by Honorary Doctor Mary Uhl-Bien

Abstract:

All who have experienced the global pandemic of 2020 and the events that followed can tell you that we live in a changed world. People no longer question whether we are in complexity, that reality has been made explicitly clear. What they want to know now is, what does it mean for how we need to lead differently?

In this talk Prof. Uhl-Bien discusses leading in complexity from the standpoint of how to enable the adaptive process in people and organizations. The adaptive process happens when individuals and systems engage tensions between pressures for change (e.g., innovation, novelty, learning, growth) and pressures for stability (e.g., current performance, short-term results, status quo) through combined acts of leading and following to generate adaptive outcomes. It is derived from complexity theory in the physical and

biological sciences. The adaptive process is a fractal dynamic, meaning that the same process occurs across any level. The good news is that once you know the process, you can enact it in any situation that requires adaptability. The talk begins by explaining how complexity and the adaptive process differ from traditional understanding of leadership and followership. It concludes by discussing how viewing complexity as an opportunity and not a crisis can help people not only survive but thrive in complexity.

After the lecture we are happy to welcome you to a reception in the atrium DH.C - Central Square, (Dalgas Have 15, 2000 Frederiksberg) at 16.00-17.30