Summary: This is a newsletter I sent to friends and colleagues, shared more widely in the hope of new conversations. It covers a quieter start to the year, then synthesising health-systems corruption research, the Systemic Investing Summit in Rio, and work with Zahed Yousuf on regulatory landscaping and political intelligence. It also touches on regenerative practice and life beyond work. It may interest people who follow my work.
- I shared less around the turn of the year to avoid adding to self-promotional noise.
- Rio, regenerative practices and my work with Zahed Yousuf have shaped my current thinking.
- Navigating complexity takes awareness, attunement, signals and sensemaking, leading to learning and adaptation.
About 5 minutes to read the full piece.
Last week, I shared this with the 150 friends and colleagues who have signed up to receive occasional newsletters from me. On reflection, I figured that sharing it more widely might lead to some new connections and conversations.
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I hope you are doing well amidst the planetary turmoil and overheating, finding bright spots of hope and encouragement, and ways in which you can contribute to nurturing social spaces of possibility, connection, learning and emergence. Living, learning, loving systems!
It’s been a while since I shared an update with you. I had a couple of months of deliberately sharing less around the turn of the year. I did not want to add to the AI-amplified self-promotional noise of LinkedIn, and was keen to avoid “here’s a thing I’ve done, I think it’s great, how about you use it, and pay me to help you do that”, and instead to find a way of being that was more invitational and less “I have a solution” pushy.
And then, from January - after several months of no paid work - I got busy. From January to March, continuing my collaboration with SOAS-ACE, I was focused on synthesising 40 reports on corruption in health systems, in Africa and Asia. A short summary of that report can be found here, on the LSE website. Then, in April, I turned my attention to systemic investing, traveling to Rio for the TransCap Systemic Investing Summit and then to visit my good friend Jorge and family in Bogota. I went to the summit to encourage conversations in the systemic investing community about investing in ways that take account of the political economy dynamics of the contexts where investment might take place.
I had an AMAZING time - best conference ever - meeting lots of new people, and, for the first time ever, becoming a bracelet wearer; a colourful bracelet to remind me of my conversations with people from indigenous communities. Having put the bracelet on, I realised it has no clasp, so it is now a semi-permanent feature and reminder of the connections I made, and the different ways of seeing, being and relating that are open to us. My reflections from Rio are here, with a wider selection of collated reflections here.
Sacred Streams Coalition and Partners at Systemic Investing Summit 2026, Rio de Janeiro. Thanks to Philippe Greier for permission to share the image.
Since then, I have been riding the waves of energy and connection from my time in Rio, exploring with Zahed Yousuf the complementarity between notions of regulatory landscaping (from my SOAS-ACE work), and collaborative political intelligence. Zahed and I met for the first time in London in early July, and got on even better in person than online, which bodes well for ongoing collaboration. Our joint piece on understanding the landscape and sensing how it moves is here.
I’ve also been excited to lean into regenerative practices. I’d tended to think regeneration was primarily relevant to “environmental” issues, but now realise - encouraged by my conversations with indigenous colleagues with long, painful and ongoing experience of extractive practices - they have much wider relevance. It’s been exciting to explore potential collaboration with colleagues at Regenerates - “Regeneration starts with understanding place” - about supporting the emergence of collective intelligence around particular places, to enable actors to collaborate more effectively in ways that are aligned with the dynamics of living systems.
In terms of paid assignments, I’ve been glad to work with Nicola Nixon at the Asia Foundation, as they seek to make the most of their experience, their partnerships and their multi-country focus, to generate insights that inform efforts to address complex social challenges. I’ve also been happy to support colleagues at Gatsby Africa, again to make the most of the insights that emerge from their experience, in ways that strengthen the ecosystems they are part of.
Most recently, last week I shared a piece on “Regulatory Landscaping: Better late than never!” which sets out my thinking about regulatory landscaping, where it came from - including my poorly remembered Ph.D. from 1996! - and how it is informing my current work.
Beyond the professional sphere (soon, I will drop the idea that my life has such boundaries), I’ve been nurturing my balcony garden, enjoying the gardening and the community at Living Vital, playing tennis again (better than ever) after 20 months of injuries, mountain biking, windsurfing, and meditating (Zen, using Henry Shukman’s “The Way” app).
I’ve also been delighted to re-connect with some old friends, and to make new friends in and around Brighton, and all around the world. Oh, and for the first time since I shaved my hair off in 1997, I’m now growing my hair, having decided to flaunt the fact that I still have some and it’s not overwhelmingly grey!
A lovely day of mountain bike orienteering - with big fails on navigating complexity, or even knowing where we were - on the South Downs
Across everything I’ve been doing - professionally and personally - I’ve been learning about what it takes to navigate the complexities of life, through a never-ending process of communication and calibration (calibration with compassion - thanks to Padma Venkataraman for our conversations about complexity and Buddhism) in relationships, with others, in a wider landscape.
So I’ve been reflecting, very practically, on how one can better navigate such complexities, through a flow of awareness, attunement, signals, and sensemaking (with the space, time and patience that requires), leading to learning and adaptation. I have lots to learn, but my experiences over the last few months have strengthened my capacity (emotional, relational and adaptive) for contributing to living, learning and loving systems, and leave me excited for the explorations and connections to come.
Big hugs to those of you who have been part of my life professionally and/or personally over the last several months. I’m very grateful for our friendships and collaboration. And to those of you who haven’t, let’s connect - drop me a line, or swing by the Sussex Riviera.
Wishing you well, wherever you are, be that Brighton, Worthing, London, Panama, Germany, India, Spain, Uganda, New Zealand, the USA, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Argentina, Senegal, Australia, Zambia, Honduras, or Norway.
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Have fun, and take care of each other!
First published on LinkedIn, 11 August 2026.