why?
We live in a mess. A glorious, terrifying, entangled mess. And yet, most leadership programs and business schools still behave as if the world were a spreadsheet.
The School of Systems and Complexity was born as a refusal. A rebellion. A love letter to systems thinking and a middle finger to reductionism.
We’re tired of pretending that control is power. That certainty is wisdom. That KPIs are maps of the territory.
We believe complexity is not a problem to be solved. It’s a condition to be lived with, danced with, made sense of — together.
The world is complex. Most responses to it are not.
what?
We are not a school. We're a disruption disguised as one.
Most organisational advice begins with solutions. We begin with seeing.
Our approach unfolds in three phases:
1) Systemic Diagnostics
We make the system visible — not to label, but to understand.
2) Targeted Interventions
We work where the system invites change, not where assumptions say it should.
3) Applied Learning
We build internal capacities that endure beyond any single engagement.
who?
We are facilitators, engineers, poets, heretics, and weirdos.
At the center of this chaos stands Pedro Portela — founder, systems geek, and recovering aerospace engineer. He once built satellites. Now he builds frameworks for thinking that don’t collapse under pressure.
Pedro brings two decades of experience across aerospace, peacebuilding, and organizational consulting. He’s part philosopher, part pilot-in-training, and fully allergic to bullshit. He talks systems while dancing tango, teaches complexity like it’s jazz, and writes with the force of someone who knows what it's like to burn out — and rebuild.
He doesn’t just teach complexity. He embodies it.
Alongside is Luísa Costa — artist, visual harvester, and art therapist. She also dances tango, practices tai-chi, and brings embodiment into everything she touches. Where Pedro maps systems, Luísa listens with her hands. Her work translates complexity into image, motion, and breath. Together, they form the axis of a school that thinks with the body and draws with the soul.
And around them, a constellation of collaborators: facilitators, researchers, philosophers, artists, and system subverters from Portugal, Brasil, UK and USA
We collaborate with people who want to change how change happens. We work with universities and anarchists. Think tanks and climate activists. Municipalities and mystics.
We live in the liminal. And we like it here.
for whom?
For organisations, policy makers, collectives, non-profits; people engaged in complex systems
This School is not for everyone.
It’s for people and organisations who recognise that:
problems recur despite effort, not because of lack of commitment, but because of unseen patterns,
strategy and execution don’t align simply because the system isn’t being looked at holistically,
teams are busy but not aligned, and communication is loud but not clear,
the challenge isn’t only skills or tools — it’s the way the organisation understands itself.
This is for leaders who are tired of superficial change and want work that changes how their organisation sees —and from there, how it works.
where?
We go where the questions are.
Most of our work happens on-site, alongside the teams we’re supporting—office, factory, or field. We go where the questions are.
Whenever possible, though, we invite groups to our small farm near Vila Nova de Famalicão. The setting is quiet, rural and practical: a converted barn for sessions, outdoor space for walking conversations, good coffee and room to breathe. Being in nature helps the work land.
If travel isn’t an option, we’ll bring a lean version of that environment to you.
