Jean Boulton Complexity for Independent Professionals: Diagnosis Before the Method

Dr Jean Boulton, physicist turned consultant and author of The Dao of Complexity, on complexity for independent professionals. She trained as a physicist, with a PhD in quantum physics, then moved through engineering and management into management consultancy.  She found complexity theory in the 1990s and worked at Cranfield University with Professor Peter Allen. She co-wrote Embracing Complexity (2015) and wrote The Dao of Complexity (2024).  She has consulted to organisations for decades, and her rule is no work without a diagnosis: interviews, past documents, conversations with customers and suppliers first. If the client says no, she walks away.  With Nigel Rawlins she talks about what a long-practising consultant notices that a model does not: the shift in mood in a team meeting, the bird she names from a tiny speck by the way it flies, and the rule she'd break to get someone to hospital. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice. Mentions and references Embracing Complexity by Jean Boulton, Peter M. Allen and Cliff Bowman The Dao of Complexity by Jean Boulton Professor Peter Allen: complexity scientist, co-author Ilya Prigogine: physicist whose work shaped the book Carlo Rovelli: relational quantum mechanics Connect with Jean Boulton: embracingcomplexity.com linkedin.com/in/jean-boulton-6856471 Support the show Connect with Nigel Rawlins Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/ Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/ The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new