ABSTRACT
If the Covid-19 pandemic reveals nothing else, it is the interconnected and systemic nature of the challenges that the world faces. Of course, the pandemic is no more than a timely reminder of our status as a component part of the natural world rather than its master. As Shiva puts it, ‘instead of being connected through biodiversity we become connected through disease' (Shiva 2020, p. 11). Societal-wide switches to digital communication in response to the pandemic have underscored both a desire to reconnect people and place (as seen in surging property prices for houses with gardens in the UK) and the impact of getting systems-level political leadership wrong. There is little doubt that the leadership of most developed countries (with notable exceptions such as New Zealand) failed to grasp the complex and emergent nature of Covid-19 or its systemic potential to disrupt health, economic and other services. We all now see that the power of information to connect with values and influence behaviour has an exponential character within networks such that it doesn't in a linear world. This book has sought to understand rising complexity in relationships between people, 396environment and economics and to consider the key leadership challenges presented therein.
