Dao of Complexity

Shortlisted in the Smart Thinking category at the Business Book Awards in partnership with Pathway Group 2025

Finalist in the Leadership - Think Differently category of the Goody Business Book Awards 2024

The pandemic, climate change, rising populism, geo-political unrest – just a few of the issues causing turbulence in today’s world. We are living and working in times that are complex and fast changing.

The Dao of Complexity is a book about challenging and deepening worldviews. It explores the remarkable resonance between complexity and Daoism, engaging with the processual, contextual and emergent nature both of ourselves and of the world of which we are a part. It connects to ideas from such diverse fields as quantum physics, brain science, political theory and economics.

Jean asks what ‘making sense’ of the world means in these turbulent times and how that can galvanise action for those of us trying to make a difference, trying to ‘make waves’ in a world of increasing connectivity, polarisation and fragility.

Taking its lead from Daoist texts, the design encourages readers to open at any page and use the short, stand-alone, yet networked pieces as reflective starting points.

This book will be of interest to scholars and those striving for social change, as well as managers and policy makers looking for inspiration. The general reader interested in science, philosophy and ancient wisdom will find relatable material to explore how to engage effectively in this complex world.

Jean Boulton, PhD, MBA, FInstP, is a visiting academic at the universities of Cranfield and Bath. She is a former research fellow with Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. She has held executive management positions in large corporates and has consulted to global organisations in the private and not-for-profit sectors. She studied physics at the universities of Oxford and then Cambridge before eventually turning to the social sciences. Jean has an international reputation for scholarship in the development of complexity theory and consults, writes, researches and lectures about its application to strategy, change, sustainability and leadership. She is keenly interested in global change and global governance and also engages in local politics and place-based initiatives. She teaches worldwide in a wide range of institutions offering postgraduate study. She is the lead author of Embracing Complexity (Oxford University Press) and author of several book chapters on complexity and strategy.