About Carl Davies
WHY I THINK THE WAY I DO
I’ve always questioned the way we make sense of the world — especially when it comes to people, systems, and change. From a young age, I was drawn to holistic thinking and systems theory, instinctively pushing back against the idea that complex problems could be broken down into neat, linear parts.
What I saw — and still see — is that our deepest challenges aren't about lack of effort or intelligence, but about flawed mental models. We use tools that fragment rather than connect, control rather than understand. I’ve spent much of my life searching for better ways to think, better ways to act, and a more grounded way to navigate complexity without defaulting to certainty or reduction.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
I began my career in health — training as a physiotherapist and specialising in complex pain and fatigue conditions. I also studied psychology, sociology, and Chinese medical practices. But the more I worked with individuals, the more I saw how profoundly the systems around them shaped their outcomes. Diagnosis was often less about biology and more about context.
That insight drove me into senior leadership roles across NHS providers and commissioners, where I saw firsthand the bureaucratic structures that trap even the most well-meaning leaders. I later transitioned into tech and consultancy, helping shape major system-wide initiatives while also pursuing a PhD in Complex Adaptive Systems.
Across these worlds, one truth remained clear: the system is always shaping the people — but the people, too, shape the system. My work sits at that intersection and I'm keen to push the boundaries on how we manage performance in complex social systems.
WHAT I AM REALLY TRYING TO SOLVE
I want to understand — and help fix — why good systems stop working. Why brilliant people get stuck. Why organisations struggle to make progress even when they’re aligned in principle. Fundamentally, I want to shift the discourse on organisational strategy and provide new directional tools that help leaders who want to achieve high performance improvement.
At its heart, my work is about breaking the illusion of control, challenging the false sense of certainty that dominates leadership thinking, and replacing it with more adaptive, learning-centred ways of working. I’m interested in how systems learn, how they adapt, and what happens when they stop. And I’m building practical tools to help leaders act with clarity even in uncertainty — without waiting for permission.
WHY IT MATTERS & WHY NOW
We’re at a turning point. We sit trapped in a Polycrisis. The environment is straining, Institutions are struggling, trust is eroding, organisations are trapped and economies are faltering because the old ways of leading and decision-making no longer work. We face polarisation, complexity, and constant change — yet we keep doubling down on control instead of learning and adapting - and control only ever leads to conflict.
I believe we need a new way to lead, to build, and to think — one that embraces uncertainty without being paralysed by it. This website is a place to share that work, be that my own works as they come on stream, or the my writings of topics, authors and creators that I found helpful during my own PhD discovery phase. It’s not a finished answer, but a growing body of thinking, writing, and frameworks that I hope others can use, adapt, and build on.
Because the truth is: systems don’t change unless the people inside them do — and that starts with how we see the world.
This website is the next phase in that journey, looking to share views that I hope others may find useful.