Leveraging complex systems: Leading for transformative change

As with other sectors over the last few years, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly reshaping the education ecosystem introducing new epistemic, ethical, and organisational challenges. Education leaders face the need to shift established systems and processes to reimagine how more adaptive complexity-informed GenAI enabled systems operate with new governance, pedagogy, and strategic decision-making. In this context, traditional bureaucratic leadership structures are ill-suited for the pace, scale, and sociotechnical nature of the ongoing technological disruption. This paper addresses this gap by introducing a novel leadership framework called SPARK, designed to operationalise Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) in the new emerging educational contexts. The framework is grounded in CLT and designed to enable system-level transformation in educational institutions. Drawing on Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts, Perez’s technoeconomic framework, and Uhl-Bien’s complexity leadership, the paper situates educational change within broader patterns of sociotechnical transformation and institutional misalignment. The SPARK framework (Systems, Problem, Analysis, Research, and Knowledge brokerage) provides a structured approach for educational leaders to navigate the tensions between institutional stability and the increasing demand for systemic innovation. SPARK combines distributed agency, adaptive capacity, and network-based leadership to guide the translation of high-potential innovations such as GenAI-enhanced pedagogy from isolated pilots to scalable, systemic practices. By embedding both technical infrastructure and social context within its design, SPARK provides effective guidelines for leaders to foster cultures of experimentation, trust and resilience. The paper argues that the systemic adoption of GenAI in education requires more radical approaches that go beyond mere technical implementations. It demands a new paradigm with reconfigured leadership models, professional identities and institutional logics. SPARK offers a pragmatic approach to assist leaders in responding to GenAI’s disruptive potential with intentional, sustainable, and equitable change.