Systems thinking is rapidly gaining traction across the built environment as placemakers confront ever-increasing complexity. For our new discussion paper, The connected city, we asked experienced leaders to explain how they navigate this urban landscape and five key themes emerged.
In complex systems – such as town centres or economic zones – social and economic dynamics cannot be directly controlled. This demands a mindset shift toward “leadership of place”, an inclusive model built on systems thinking that first emerged more than 15 years ago.
As the sector seeks new partnership models to deliver placemaking, we explore the role of leadership in place-based systems where no single organisation holds all the cards. In The connected city: System leadership for urban complexity, we learn insights four experienced leaders to explain how they navigate this landscape:
- Alison Handley, Director of Transformation, L&Q
- Nabeel Khan, Chief Executive, Oxford Street Development Corporation
- Caroline Mostowfi, Partner, Devonshires
- Peter O’Brien, Executive Director – Placemaking & Growth at London Borough of Hounslow
While each leader operates in a different part of the sector, their experiences point to shared leadership capabilities needed to navigate complexity. Through in-depth interviews, we identified five key themes for system leadership for placemakers, which include trade-offs, stewardship of place and dealing with macro pressure. The themes are:
- Managing conscious trade-offs
- Translation and speaking a common language
- From influence to stewardship
- Pragmatism and operational flexibility
- External macro pressures and connected impacts
“A large part of trying to make a system work is just speaking the same language,” says Nabeel Khan of the Oxford Street Development Corporation. “A lot of my time is spent translating one partner’s aspirations into how that would work for another partner, and then hopefully getting to a place where we’re speaking a common language.”
Read the paper to explore the five themes of system leadership
We produced the paper to start a conversation about leading in complex systems as part of our leadership development programmes. It was developed in association with law firm Devonshires, a long-standing supporter of Future London Leaders.
Our thanks to Devonshires and to all the interviewees for generously sharing their time, insights, and experience.
