Sonja Blignaut

More Beyond

Getting unstuck: becoming fit for complexity

30 October 2023, 15:50

Sonja helps people and organisations thrive in uncertainty. She partners with those who need to navigate, make sense of, and lead in our topsy-turvy complex world. She spans the boundaries of leadership, OD & change, strategy, risk, innovation, and marketing. In short, she works wherever there is complexity, which nowadays is more or less everywhere. Sonja is the founder of More Beyond and co-founder of ComplexityFit. She is also the ex-CEO of Cognitive Edge (now The Cynefin Co). She is a globally sought-after teacher and speaker on topics related to Complexity, Cynefin, Waysfinding, and enabling Future- and Complexity Fitness. Sonja mostly works in the corporate sector but has a passion for the environment and social development. Some of her clients are Ikea, Accenture, Nedbank, Liberty, Momentum Metropolitan, Waters Romania World Wildlife Fund and many others. 

Fitness is not only related to physical endurance, it is also the ability to adapt to, or be “fit” for a particular environment or ecological niche.

Our environment is characterised by exponential change and increasing interconnectedness or entanglement. And many of us are struggling to adapt as our systems, structures and skills still reflect an earlier paradigm. This poses a challenge: how do we adapt to this environment, how do we become (and remain) fit for a fast changing world?

I believe it starts with a reframing of our beliefs about uncertainty, ambiguity and change. And an ability to become comfortable with discomfort. In short, to be COOL in complexity.