A new academy for a New Enlightenment: systems thinking, global wisdom, and interdisciplinary learning for an age of messy and wicked problems.  

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The Enlightened Enterprise Academy (EEA) was founded to respond to a critical failure in how leaders are educated for the realities of our time. As Paul Barnett, founder of the academy has argued, most traditional universities, products of the Enlightenment, are part of the problem rather than the solution.

 

Organised into rigid faculty siloes, universities train students to think narrowly whilst privileging disciplinary expertise over collaboration, and reproducing outdated models of knowledge. This fragmented approach leaves leaders ill-equipped to address the challenges of the 21st century.

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That would be less of a problem is we were not now living in an age of what Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber called “Wicked Problems," problems that are difficult or impossible to define with precision, have no single “correct” solution, and shift over time in response to attempted interventions.

 

Climate change, inequality, failing health systems, biodiversity loss, and institutional mistrust are all wicked problems. They are interconnected, emergent, and volatile. They demand new ways of knowing, thinking, and acting that transcend disciplinary siloes and reductionist thinking.

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Michael C. Jackson, world-leading thinker in Critical Systems Thinking and Practice and author of Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity, makes this point powerfully:

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“What help can decision‐makers expect when tackling the ‘messes’ and ‘wicked problems’ that proliferate in this age of complexity? They are usually brought up on classical management theory that emphasizes the need to forecast, plan, organize, lead, and control… These assumptions do not hold in the modern world, and classical management theory provides the wrong prescriptions… Usually, however, [alternative approaches] fail to bring the promised benefits and can even make things worse. They are simple, ‘quick‐fix’ solutions that flounder in the face of interconnectedness, volatility, and uncertainty… Fundamentally… they are not systemic enough.”

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Jackson’s analysis exposes the heart of the problem: our inherited institutions and management philosophies assume stability, predictability, and controllability. They are linear solutions for a non-linear world. In practice, they reduce complexity to what can be measured, controlled, or benchmarked, ignoring the interdependencies, politics, and multiple perspectives that define real-world situations. Leaders are left with an endless cycle of fads and panaceas that rarely deliver the promised transformation.

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The Enlightened Enterprise Academy exists to offer a different way forward. At the heart of the Academy way of thinking is systems thinking and practice. Systems thinking enables us to better perceive wholes rather than fragments, to see how decisions reverberate across domains, and to design interventions that respect interdependence. Systems practice equips leaders to navigate uncertainty not with false certainty but with adaptive learning, collaborative inquiry, and humility in the face of complexity.

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The Academy also seeks to reclaim and renew the original promise of the Enlightenment. Before science came to dominate the intellectual landscape, the Enlightenment was conceived as a conversation between many modes of knowledge: philosophy, literature, the arts, natural science, and moral reflection. That pluralism was gradually eroded, leaving us with an overemphasis on narrow rationalism and empirical methods. The EEA recovers that earlier, richer spirit, bringing together the sciences, humanities, and arts alongside practical, lived wisdom. In doing so, it unlocks more ways of knowing: analytical, experiential, imaginative, moral, and spiritual.

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Equally important, the Enlightened Enterprise Academy is global in outlook. The first Enlightenment was largely a Western project. Its ideas seeded advances in science, governance, and industry, but also imposed a narrow worldviews that dismissed or devalued other traditions of knowledge.

 

Today, as we face planetary challenges that are global in scope, we must extend our inquiry beyond Western horizons. Indigenous wisdom traditions, Eastern philosophies, and Southern perspectives offer vital insights into interconnectedness, reciprocity, resilience, and dignity. Integrating these ways of knowing does not mean romanticising them but recognising that without them, our understanding of complex realities is impoverished.

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The Enlightened Enterprise Academy therefore exists to:

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• Break down siloes between disciplines and sectors, enabling true interdisciplinarity.

• Equip leaders and communities with systems thinking and practice as central tools.

• Rebalance knowledge by integrating arts, sciences, humanities, and lived experience.

• Foster a global dialogue of perspectives that moves beyond Western dominance.

• Enable enterprises and societies to navigate wicked problems with imagination, empathy, and courage.

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This is not a university in the traditional sense, nor a management school locked into outdated curricula. It is a living, learning network: a place where enterprise meets ethics, where theory meets practice, and where dialogue between disciplines and cultures sparks fresh insight.

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The vision of the Enlightened Enterprise Academy is to help catalyse a new Enlightenment, one that honours human dignity, planetary wellbeing, and shared flourishing. A learning ecosystem fit for the age of complexity, and a beacon for enterprises seeking to act wisely in a world of wicked problems.

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