Jeff McCarthy
MAIS ePortfolio 
Organization and Leadership

Taming Black Swans: Leadership, Complexity and Adaptive Humanity 

     This ePortfolio brings together coursework, reflections, and research developed throughout my Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS) program. The work presented here reflects an evolving interest in how human systems learn, adapt, and exercise leadership under conditions of increasing complexity and uncertainty. Drawing upon my experience in public service and emergency management, I examine these questions through a participant-observer lens while integrating perspectives from leadership studies, organizational theory, complexity theory, adult education, sensemaking, and interdisciplinary inquiry.

     Throughout the portfolio, I explore how adaptive capacity emerges within organizations, communities, and public institutions, paying particular attention to leadership, learning, institutional memory, and decision-making across organizational and disciplinary boundaries. Rather than serving as a simple archive of assignments, this portfolio is intended to demonstrate the evolution of my thinking and the ways in which theory, lived experience, and reflective inquiry have gradually converged toward a broader exploration of how adaptive human systems can be intentionally designed to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world and future Black Swans.