Staying in relation
in complex times

In a turbulent world where there are few certainties, we need to find good enough ground for now
to go on together.
Exploring Our Shared Experience
ComplexitySalon hosts events, seminars, group work and conferences to help make sense of our experience of being blown about in uncertain times.
Reflective and Reflexive Opportunities
ComplexitySalon creates space and time for practising reflection on some pressing issues of our times, because we think that reflection, intelligent noticing and sense-making, is a practice which we have never needed more than we do now.

Our events provide reflective and reflexive opportunities for us to gain a better understanding of ourselves and the situations we face. There is nowhere to get to and nothing to achieve, except a deeper understanding. This means drawing on our unique human capacity to make sense of who we are becoming and what we think we are doing together.
Learn more about ComplexitySalon

Live

Sydney

Moving from “power over” to “power with”
19.02.2026
9:30 pm
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
Join us to consider how diplomacy shows up in our everyday relationships. To look around the world at the moment one might conclude that there is a reformulation of how to exercise power and influence. Out go empathy, rules of engagement, liberal interdependence, good enough consensus, and in come chainsaws, coercion, bullying and faits accomplis. ComplexitySalon is delighted to host Dr. Geoff Raby AO - Australian Ambassador to China 2007-2011, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation and to APEC amongst other major appointments; and author of a number of books and papers on global politics, including his most recent Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy - to talk about the practice of diplomacy.
Register to the event
Past events

Online

ComplexitySalon Online: with Professor Carl Rhodes
18.11.2025
7:00 pm
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
In a turbulent world, those with greater ability to influence often chose to push the burden of uncertainty onto those who are already more marginalised. The greater and more visible this inequality in society the more likely it is that groups who feel underrepresented become anxious and more susceptible to simplistic solutions.
More about the event

Live

Sydney, Australia

AI and the Art of Management
22.08.2025
8:30 pm
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
AI brings huge potential for greater innovation and prosperity, and at the same time may cause radical instabilities in the way we organise our societies. No technological development is solely good, and becoming dependent on algorithms is bound to challenge what we think it means to be human. This was an opportunity to explore the everyday implications of AI in the workplace alongside hopes and fears.
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Live

Wynyard hub, Sydney

Complexity & practice for management
04.02.2025
9:00 am
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
A one-day introduction to the complexity sciences and their implications for the workplace with Snowmelt Consultancy and The Upfront Thinking Company. If we can’t predict and control, then what are we doing at work as we try to go on together? The complexity sciences offer a radical alternative to the tools and techniques of orthodox management.
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Live

Whale Beach, Sydney

The uncontrollability of the world
03.12.2022
9:00 am
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
It appears it is becoming hard to talk to each other, and even harder to listen. But if we are to break out of the cycle of increased polarisation which seems to affect virtually every country in the world, then we need to consider changing our practices. The way we relate to each other every day is directly linked to the kinds of institutions we create.
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Live

Whale beach, Sydney

ComplexitySalon with indigenous leaders from Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Fiji and the Solomon Islands
01.12.2022
9:00 pm
AEDT (UTC+11:00)
Two day workshop to explore alternative ways of knowing, speaking and being together to explore asymmetric power relationships and the politics of development. In conjunction with the Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, with Professor Chris Roche.
More about the event
The ComplexitySalon Community
ComplexitySalon has attracted entrepreneurs, consultants, practitioners and academics who are all committed to talking about what really matters. If you have something to offer, something to talk about, or something to share, we invite you to connect
Discover our community
Chris
Roche
Grace
Chung
Carl
Rhodes
Chloé
Oru
Chris
Mowles
Sophie
Wong
Murray
Stubbs
Chloé
Oru
Mimi
Zou
Nuala
Dent
Dreu
Harrison
" As a student focused on genetics, my day-to-day is often spent in the technical. The events... offered a vital reminder: our most significant global challenges aren't just scientific; they're deeply human, relational, and immensely complex."
Addison Born
"the task is to listen some, to talk some, to question each other and ourselves, to reflect and to become more reflexive. The currency of the day is conversation.'"
Chris Roche
"These conversations matter to me because they resist easy answers - creating space to think deeply about power, diplomacy and relationships in a complex world."
Nuala Dent
Let’s get to know each other
Get in touch
Acknowledgement of Country
We meet from many places, each with its own deep histories of belonging and custodianship. In the spirit of reflexive practice, we acknowledge that the lands we occupy carry obligations we are still learning to understand. In Australia, this begins with recognising the Traditional Custodians of unceded Country and paying respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
© ComplexitySalon 2026