Executive education online: Adaptive thinking for complex policy development

Frameworks and processes to understand and enable adaptive change in complex and uncertain policy environments.

How to lead and manage in a complex and uncertain business landscape.

A range of global and national forces inter-relate with each other and surge and decline at different times and at different scales to create the complexity and uncertainty that we experience on a day-to-day basis. Much of what we witness is self-organising and emergent which means that it is unpredictable. The increased level of uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity creates a highly challenging environment for policy and strategy developers.

To be able to lead and manage effectively in such a dynamic world, decision-makers in government and business need new frameworks and processes to better understand complexity and uncertainty. This course enables you to build your current and future capability and expertise to better understand complexity and uncertainty and develop programs and processes that will support adaptation within the organisation and the society that you serve.

Key topics include:

• An overview of the concepts and principles of complex adaptive systems;
• Application through group-work of those principles to contemporary issues identified by participants to better understand complexity and how to respond to it; 
• The role of institutions like the Reserve Bank of Australia.
• An overview of how we can use the concepts of complex adaptive systems (CAS) to better understand human behaviour relating to decision-making, strategy and policy development and the implications for leading and managing as adaptive organisation and projects.

At a glance

Format: Online

Duration: 5 weeks (excluding orientation)

Commitment: 4-5 hours per week

Cost: $1,495 (or $1,195 for early bird registrations by 25 June)

Start/end date: 25 July - 22 August 2025 with a course orientation / meet and greet on 22 July

Group discounts available.

Course curriculum

• Module 1 ​Introduction​
• Module 2 ​What are complex adaptive systems?​
• Module 3 How people work together​ for strategy and policy development through the lens of CAS
• Module 4 What we need to focus on in the future

Session schedule

This course will run as an online and distance program in 2025. It is scheduled to run across 5 weeks, 25 July - 22 August 2025 with a course orientation / meet and greet on 22 July. Specific dates and times to note in your diary are as follows: 

• 10am-11am Tuesday 22 July 2025 – course introduction/meet and greet session
• 10am-11:30am Friday 25 July 2025
• 10am-11:30am Friday 1 August 2025
• 10am-11:30am Friday 15 August 2025
• 10am-11:30am Friday 22 August 2025

• Note: Dates and times are in Canberra time (AEST). The calendar invite for each session should automatically adjust to your timezone when you add it to your calendar. You can check at a site like this to be sure.

Learning outcomes

• Understand how to lead and manage in a complex and volatile environment 
• Understand how to lead and support cultural change 
• Apply skills and techniques that will assist adaptive policy and strategy development 

Who is this course for?

• Managers who are required to develop strategy and policy in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous operating environment. 
• Project leaders who are responding to complex problems, yet do not believe nor feel that they are gaining a sense of satisfaction through their efforts. 
• This course is suitable for APS6 - SES, or equivalent level. 
•  
• Apply the principles of complex adaptive systems to better understand complex environments 
• Understand how people work together using the frameworks and principles of complex adaptive systems 
• Understand the worldview of complex adaptive systems