ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide leaders with insights and examples of how transformation and change focused on building sustainable enterprise can be achieved in ways that produce superior results. Since the first edition of this book important new insights from complexity science are having a profound impact on our understanding of how organizations actually work. We build on the concepts of Per Bak on self-organizing criticality which are fundamental to understanding the importance of focused, purposeful, disciplined conversations, how change occurs, and the way energy and creativity are opened up and sustained.
In this context, the chapter focuses on the way leaders see themselves and choose to be in relation to each other, employees, customers, communities, the larger society, the environment, and other stakeholders. Leaders in sustainable enterprise choose to purposefully engage with the people inside the organization as if it were a living system, while recognizing that they are simultaneously operating in the larger ecosystem of the world.
The essays in this holographic ensemble bring together many of the key features of leadership for sustainable enterprise. We introduce a Leadership Diamond model, and five essays that breathe life into the model are shared. The Leadership Diamond model integrates the roles of leaders in relating and influencing through the power of enterprise intent and the embedded governing principles. It emphasizes the way of being that is so critical to sustainability. Another essay provides reflections on leadership from ancient traditions and Earth wisdom. A final essay provides a powerful framework for leading sustainable enterprise focused on the transformational power of listening.
