Diana Renner
Author and leadership expert on uncertainty and complexity
As a keynote speaker, Diana Renner engages with her audience presenting insights on adaptive leadership, complexity theory and adult development helping people to be more effective and resilient. Enabling individuals to become better leaders by having a positive effect in the world.
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- English
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Diana Renner's 2025 Biography
Diana Renner’s background
Diana is a leadership facilitator, organisational consultant, author and keynote speaker.
She brings together adaptive leadership, complexity theory and adult development to assist individuals to become better leaders and make a positive impact in the world.
Diana is passionate about creating experiential learning opportunities where individuals focus on the dynamics of human behaviour and engage with real social and business issues, to learn how to make progress on complex adaptive challenges.
Career
Over the years, her work has taken her into companies of all sizes, government and community organisations, leading capability development, culture change and transformation programs. She has extensive experience designing and facilitating leadership development programs within Australia and internationally.
Diana was a guest faculty member for ‘The Art and Practice of Leadership Development’ program at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 2013.
Since 2013, she has been a faculty member for the ‘Transformative Leadership Program’ run by the University of Adelaide and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, at the University of Texas.
Diana also designs and delivers executive leadership programs at the Melbourne Business School, Monash University, University of Adelaide and the Australian Institute of Police Management.
In 2016, Diana co-founded the Uncharted Leadership Institute which focuses on helping individuals and organisations to become more effective and resilient in uncertainty and complexity.
Awards
- Not Knowing – 2015 Chartered Management Book of the Year Award, UK
- 2017 Monash University Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award Education for the 21st Century – awarded to the ‘Global Challenges (Honours) Program’ for teaching leadership, entrepreneurship and industry engagement.
- 2017 Australasian Council of Women and Policing (ACWAP) Excellence in Law Enforcement for Women Initiative – awarded to the ‘Balance Leadership Program for Women in Policing’ facilitation team.
Qualifications
- Post Graduate Diploma, Organisational Change & Consulting (Organisational Dynamics), RMIT University
- Bachelor of Law, Bachelor of Arts (English Literature), Monash University
- Memberships
– Academy of Management
– International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations
– OPUS – An Organisation for Promoting Understanding of Society
– Group Relations Australia
Diana Renner's 2025 Talks & Topics
Diana Renner's Latest Books
Not Knowing: The Art of Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity
Knowledge and expertise are highly valued in today’s business world. These values are introduced at an early age by our education system, and at work, we are assessed based on what we know, on having the answers and solutions. Our need for certainty, to know what’s going on, to have all the answers, exerts strong pressure in our lives.
This award-winning book offers an alternative, contrarian approach to dealing with such pressures and to embrace “not knowing” rather than fearing it. The authors argue it is by “not knowing” that we in fact develop an exploratory mindset, and we discover, engage and create new ways to deal with business and management problems and issues.
The book is supported by stories of individuals and the positive change they made in their lives through “not knowing.” Solving new problems with old ways of thinking are no longer useful in the new world.
Not Doing: The Art of Turning Struggle into Ease
So many people today are struggling with the increasing pace of change and the constant and excessive busyness that comes with it. Many feel stretched, overwhelmed and exhausted, besieged by the demands of complex projects and workplaces. They are engaged in a kind of “doing” that is more effort and struggle, rather than a “doing” that comes from a place of presence, openness and aliveness. This is not only ineffective and unsustainable, but ultimately ends in stress, anxiety and burnout.
This book, by the authors of the award-winning Not Knowing (Best Management Book of the Year), explores the limits and dangers of “doing”; how do they play out in our lives and workplaces; what is driving, or contributing, to our excessive activity; and what would a different kind of “doing” look like, that is less about control and struggle and more about well-being, harmony and creativity.
Articles & Podcasts
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