What is Complex Adaptive Intelligence?
Accessing your Adaptive Intelligence’© enables us to experience a transformed capacity to thrive in an increasingly uncertain world. |
“The greatest empire is to be emperor of oneself” - Seneca |

Complex Adaptive intelligence is the ability to respond resourcefully to change in a dynamic context. All living systems, from microbes to human beings, intrinsically adapt to their environments. It is the underlying principle of evolution. In living systems with more rudimentary forms of sentience, this ability is instinctual. In more advanced living systems with greater capacities of consciousness the underlying driver of adaptation changes from ‘reaction’ to ‘response’. Response presupposes choice. Conscious responses in more complicated organised environments demand a more comprehensive form of information processing and analysis.
In today’s dynamic VUCA world those conventional fixed problem-solving structures, such as procedures, equations, algorithms, no matter how sophisticated, that are required for analysis and solution-finding are no longer sufficient to deal with the phenomenon of ‘emergence’. The phenomenon of emergence defines the nature of complex systems. This is a state of disruption and reorganisation when many interactive dynamics result in unforeseen events. Complex Adaptive Intelligence now requires the ability to recognise new patterns early on, employing our inherent capacity to draw on intuitive sensing of emergent patterns.
Cultivating Complex Adaptive Intelligence requires the honing of the following capacities:
Accessing Complex Adaptive Intelligence is essentially then about learning to thrive in an uncertain world.
In today’s dynamic VUCA world those conventional fixed problem-solving structures, such as procedures, equations, algorithms, no matter how sophisticated, that are required for analysis and solution-finding are no longer sufficient to deal with the phenomenon of ‘emergence’. The phenomenon of emergence defines the nature of complex systems. This is a state of disruption and reorganisation when many interactive dynamics result in unforeseen events. Complex Adaptive Intelligence now requires the ability to recognise new patterns early on, employing our inherent capacity to draw on intuitive sensing of emergent patterns.
Cultivating Complex Adaptive Intelligence requires the honing of the following capacities:
- Presence - developing finer qualities of sensory awareness
- Agility - developing elegant and flexible responses
- Engagement - developing effective interactive skills and commitment to relationship building
- Resilience - developing the capacity to recover after a setback and grow stronger
- Creativity - developing the willingness to imagine and test new approaches
Accessing Complex Adaptive Intelligence is essentially then about learning to thrive in an uncertain world.