R e g e n e r a t i v e L e a d e r s h i p:

A Theory for Transforming People and Organizations for

Sustainability in Business, Education, and Community

John Hardman

February 2009

This is the greatest moral and social challenge humankind has ever faced

Tony Cortese, 2009

FRAMEWORK OF SUSTAINABILITY

Equitable

Sustainable

ViableBearable

NaturalEnvironment

EconomicEnvironment

SocialEnvironment

2

Brundtland Commission Report 1987

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs

of the present without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs"

Equitable EnvironmentEnvironment

Education

Framework 2 – (Senge et al 2008)

Environment

Society

3

Economy

• Comparative research into sustainability leadership across domains is limited, and

focuses primarily on specific issues of sustainable development as opposed to

leadership and organizational change. One study focused on business leadership.

• Sustainability efforts, and by extension research, tend to focus on isolated issues

(e.g. environmental degradation, poverty, curriculum reform).

• None of the research reviewed has compared or contrasted the developmental

experiences of leaders engaged in sustainability efforts in business, education, and

community.

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• To establish COMMONALITIES AND/OR DIFFERENCES between the

developmental experiences of leaders who have successfully embedded

sustainable development for sustainability in business, education, and community,

AND between the change strategies they utilize to move their organizations to

greater degrees of sustainability.

community.

Research Questions

1. What are the similarities and differences between the

developmental experiences of sustainability leaders across the

domains of business, education, and community?

2. What are the similarities and differences between the change

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2. What are the similarities and differences between the change

strategies they utilize to move their organizations towards

greater degrees of sustainability?

CONTEXTS

Development Individual Local/Organizational GlobalIN

DIV

IDU

AL

MIN

DS

ET/

BE

HA

VIO

UR

S

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2

Conceptual Framework: The Sustainability Journey

Equitable

Sustainable

ViableBearable

Natural Environment

Economic Environment

Social Environment

IND

IVID

UA

L

MIN

DS

ET/

BE

HA

VIO

UR

S

LEVEL 1

Weak Moderate Strong

COLLECTIVE MINDSET/BEHAVIORS

6

Organizing Framework

INDIVIDUALINDIVIDUAL

Personal mindset,

purpose, and

worldview

What I understand, think,

believe and feel.

Personal behaviors,

competencies, and

skills

What do I do, and how well

do I do it?

INTERIOR

INTERIOR

EXTERIOR

EXTERIOR

1 ID1 ID 2 IB2 IB

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COLLECTIVECOLLECTIVE

What WE understand,

think, believe and feel

together.

Collective mindset,

culture, purpose and

worldview

What do WE do, and how

well do we do it?

Collective behaviors,

systems, competencies,

and skills

INTERIOR

INTERIOR

Adapted from the Integral Vision of Ken WilberAdapted from the Integral Vision of Ken Wilber

EXTERIOR

EXTERIOR

3 CD3 CD 4 CB4 CB

Methodology

GROUNDED THEORY (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)

Sampling Plan

• Purposeful sampling (Merriam, 1997)

• Snowball sampling for additional subjects (Miles & Huberman, 1994)

• 24 participants (8 from each domain)

• 3 years leading successful sustainability efforts

Data Collection

• Structured interviews

• Organizational documentation

Analysis and Discussion of Findings

• Excel coding process

• Cross analysis

• Theory development

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Michael Singer Michael Singer Studio

Martin Melaver CEO, Melaver, Inc., Real Estate

Joe Laur Greenopolis, Waste Management/Co-founder, Sustainability Consortium of the Society for

Organizational Learning (SOL)

Gregor Barnum Director of Corporate Consciousness, 7th Generation

Darcy Winslow Senior Advisor, NIKE Foundation

Roger Vardan General Motors/Founder of Strata-Gems

Seetha C.Kammula Shell/Founder of Simply Sustain LLC

Wally Sanger President, Royal Concrete Concepts

Bu

sin

ess

Eve Williams Building Projects Manager, City of Tallahassee

Cecilia Campoverde Founder, The Guatemalan Project

Jim Murley Secretary of Community Affairs, Florida, Executive Director, Center for Urban and

Environmental Solutions (CUES) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Chair of the Florida Energy

and Climate Change Commission

Rebecca Bardach United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Center for International Migration and

Integration of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Co

mm

un

ity

SA

MP

LE

9

Integration of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Debbie Koristz Assistant Director of Israel & Overseas Projects, Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County

Steve Seibert Executive Director, Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida

Nathan Burrell Founder, The Honey Project, President of the Minority E-Commerce Association, Inc. (MECA

John Elkington Founder, Volans Ventures, Visiting Professor, Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility,

School of Management, Cranfield University, UK

MaryBeth Burton Assoc. Director, Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (FAU)

Leonard Berry Director, Florida Center of Environmental Studies

Daniel Meeroff Prof. of Environmental Sciences/Dept. of Civil Engineering (FAU)

Jaap Vos Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Florida Atlantic

University

Judy Walton President, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

Jean MacGregor Director, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, Evergreen

State University

Anthony Cortese President, Second Nature

Mitchell Thomashow President, Unity College, Maine

Co

mm

un

ity

Ed

uca

tio

n

DATA ANALYSIS

Sample Interview Questions

CONTEXT

DOMAINS AQAL Forces

Su

bje

ct

Do

ma

in

Initia

l

Ra

ce

Ge

nd

er

Na

tio

na

lity

1 D

efin

itio

n

2 L

ea

de

rsh

ip

3 T

urn

ing

Po

ints

4 M

ind

se

t

5 S

tra

teg

ies

6 A

ge

nd

a

7 O

the

r

Keywords/ Phrases1

ID

2

IB

3

CD

4

CB

Ch

alle

ng

es/O

bsta

cle

s/I

mp

ed

ers

Dri

ve

rs/M

otiva

tin

g fa

cto

rs/F

acilita

tors

Qu

ote

EN

GA

GE

ME

NT

Reg

en

era

tio

n

Ch

an

ge

LE

AD

ER

SH

IP

2814168 237 366 332 1099 401 249 2814 517 414 585 922 685 1598 152 56 13 140 117

1 B MS W M US 1I have a problem with the word. I think it’s working today because the

word brands a practice, brands a theory. 1 1

1 B MS W M US 1

It implies that we are sustaining something that we've already put into

operation and I think we've got to actually transform the idea of

sustainability, move beyond what we’ve put into operation, not try to

maintain or sustain what we have for our children and grandchildren

any more than sustaining a bad relationship. Do you want to sustain

that? 1 1

1 B MS W M US 1 I much prefer the concept of regeneration. 1 1 1

1 B MS W M US 1A regenerative practice is one that looks at how any action that we

take in a built or social environment, results in change. 1 1 1 1 1

1 B MS W M US 1We can also take actions that catalyze and evolve towards healthier

situations, better situations. 1 1 1

1 B MS W M US 1We, of course, can also take actions that evolve towards negative or

degenerative situations. 1 1 10

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

1 D

efi

nit

ion

2 L

ea

de

rsh

ip

3 T

urn

ing

Po

int

4 M

ind

set

5 S

tra

teg

ies

6 A

ge

nd

a

7 O

the

r

1 D

efi

nit

ion

2 L

ea

de

rsh

ip

3 T

urn

ing

Po

int

4 M

ind

set

5 S

tra

teg

ies

6 A

ge

nd

a

7 O

the

r

1 D

efi

nit

ion

2 L

ea

de

rsh

ip

3 T

urn

ing

Po

int

4 M

ind

set

5 S

tra

teg

ies

6 A

ge

nd

a

7 O

the

r

Business Community Education

7%10%

14%12%

35%

13%

8%5%

8%

13%16%

34%

15%

9%6% 6%

11%

6%

47%

14%

10%

Distribution of responses across domains 2814 lines of text

FINDINGS: Quantitative

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Business Community Education

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

ID IB CD CB ID IB CD CB ID IB CD CB

Business Community Education

21%

17%

26%

36%

21% 21% 20%

37%

21%

14%

25%

41%

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INDIVIDUALINDIVIDUAL

COLLECTIVECOLLECTIVE

Personal

mindset,

purpose, and

worldview

Personal

behaviors,

competencies,

and skills

Collective

mindset,

culture,

purpose and

worldview

Collective

behaviors,

systems,

competencies,

and skills

INTERIOR

INTERIOR E

XTERIOR

EXTERIOR

1 ID1 ID 2 IB2 IB

3 CD3 CD 4 CB4 CB

Distribution of responses across the organizing framework - Inter-rater reliability 97.4%

CONTEXTS

INTEGRATED WORLDVIEW Individual Local/Organizational Global

IND

IVID

UA

L M

IND

SE

T/B

EH

AV

IOR

S

LEVEL 3

ENGAGEDWorld-centric (All of Us)

Post-conventional moral

development

(Kohlberg)

•Awakening

•Heightened sense of purpose

•Vision beyond sustainability

•Systems thinking, everything is

interconnected – Global ethics

•Intra & intergenerational (future)

•Urgency

•Fearlessness – courage

•“Inner work”

•“… more important than me”

•“… butterfly mindset”

•“I get in people’s faces, but in a

nice way”

•Non-charismatic transforming

leadership (higher purpose is the

driver)

•Multi-stakeholder engagement

•Literally everyone is critical to

the decision making process

•“Leadership from within” “Check

your ego and logo at the door”

•“Bring everybody involved to the

table before you begin”

•“Florida 2060”

Backcasting

Triple loop learning

Transconceptual dynamics

Third order change

Circular organization

Triple top line: “How can we

grow prosperity, celebrate our

community, and enhance the

health of all species?”

FINDINGS: Qualitative

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IND

IVID

UA

L M

IND

SE

T

nice way”

LEVEL 2

COMPLIANT/COMMITTED

Ethno-centric (Us)

Conventional

(Kohlberg)

•Compliance in isolation

•Ethno-centric ethics

•Local perspective

•Mid -term vision

•Weighting between compliance

and commitment in some areas

(e.g. economics, and/or

education, environment and

social justice)

Global efforts that show

commitment to

local/organizational agenda

Integration stronger than

compliance and fragmentation

LEVEL 1

RESISTANT/SKEPTICAL

Self-centered (Me)

Pre-conventional

(Kohlberg)

•Self-serving ethics

•Short-term vision

•Distrustful of evidence

•“Fear and greed”

•Partial compliance with

fragmented external policy and

regulation

•Single bottom line

•“Silo effect”

Forced compliance with

integrated external policy and

regulation

“Sticks and carrots”

FRAGMENTED WORLDVIEW Level 1 (Weak Sustainability) Level 2 (Moderate Sustainability) Level 3 (Strong Sustainability)

COLLECTIVE MINDSET/BEHAVIORS

Personal behaviors,

competencies, and skills

•Non-charismatic, purpose-

driven leadership

•Iterative observation

•Deep listening

•Multi-stakeholder

engagement

Collective behaviors,

systems, competencies,

and skills

•Backcasting

•Third-order change

•Collective strategy to

prototype and mainstream

best solutions for ideal

futures (triple-top line)

REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP

COLLECTIVE

COLLECTIVE

INDIVIDUAL

INDIVIDUAL

EXTERIOR / OBJECTIVE WORLDEXTERIOR / OBJECTIVE WORLD

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Circular

organization

Personal mindset,

purpose, and worldview

•Awakening to a heightened

sense of purpose

•Creative intelligence

•Systems thinking

•Global ethics

•Emerging futures

Collective mindset,

culture, purpose and

worldview

•Fostering collective

purpose through

generative conversation

•Transconceptual

dynamics

•Triple-loop learning

COLLECTIVE

COLLECTIVE

INDIVIDUAL

INDIVIDUAL

INTERIOR / SUBJECTIVE WORLDINTERIOR / SUBJECTIVE WORLD

11

4422

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© 2009 John Hardman – All rights reserved© 2009 John Hardman – All rights reserved

Field of Engagement & Emerging ConsciousnessField of Engagement & Emerging Consciousness

• To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work

alongside you to make your farms flourish and let

clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and

feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours

that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer

afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; afford indifference to suffering outside our borders;

nor can we consume the world's resources without

regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we

must change with it.

Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009

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