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
5
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
4422
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
33
© 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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