A truly expansive and valuable book that challenges the assumptions and constraints of current
leadership thinking... Its focus on integrating theory and practice is particularly helpful in
linking its key ideas to current public sector management concerns.-Gareth Morgan Author of
Images of OrganizationWhile other authors have offered general principles of systemic
leadership or given readers single approaches Hobbs is much more ambitious: she brings
together diverse well-tested theoretical methodological and practical approaches to provide
today's leaders with a multifaceted resource that can aid them in thinking systemically. In
this respect her book is a significant advance on previous offerings and I wholeheartedly
recommend it to leaders aspiring leaders and leadership academics around the world.-Gerald
Midgley University of Hull UKThis is an impressive and innovative work that draws together
the disparate strands of complexity theory systems thinking and operational research to build
an adaptive social learning approach for local governance helping to shift it from a
service-led to systemic-deliberative model. This is essential reading for local government
actors students of local policy and for the public policy generalist.-Robert Geyer Lancaster
University UKAddressing matters of complexity systemically rather than mechanistically is now
an ethical and practical paradigm-changing challenge for public policy. This optimistic book
explores how action could be led in a joined-up way signposting resources to thinking
differently. Attention is paid to leading the design of adaptive social learning around what
matters re-connecting with public purpose to enable tailoring towards contemporary needs and
constraints. Relevant to postgraduates academics local government managers curious
practitioners and the wider public private and third sectors where there is interest in
interpreting leadership via the cognitive capabilities of Systems Science.
