COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Building Competence for Sustainability

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COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE 2

If you want to travel fast, Travel alone.

If you want to travel far, Travel together.

African Proverb

Collective Leadership for Sustainability

Collective Leadership Institute e.V.

Eisenhartstraße 2 – 14469 Potsdam – Germany www.collectiveleadership.com

COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE 3

Collective leaders create pathways for collaboratively finding innovative solutions to the challenges of sustainability and for

implementing them in a spirit of collective responsibility.

This includes collaborative action and collective input into the creation of a future that many can own.

They know that this requires personal maturity as much as the capacity to lead structural change.

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Defining Collective Leadership for Sustainability

Collective leadership for sustainability is the capacity of a group of leaders to deliver their contribution to a more sustainable future through assuming joint and flexible leadership in service of the common good. At the core of collective leadership is the human capacity to dialogue and transform differences into progress. It enables the transcendence of self-centered views, a prerequisite for successfully addressing the challenges of globalization and sustainability. 

Collective Leadership Institute

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Building our capacity for Collective Leadership for Sustainability

In building this capacity we need to travel an inner path and an outer path, and we need to do this in conjunction with fellow-leaders who are also prepared to take responsibility for a more sustainable future. Both paths are intertwined, traveling the inner path prepares us for the outer path, traveling the outer path strengthens the inner path.

Collective Leadership Institute

How can we find ways to open

up to collective intelligence?

How can we acces our own humanity?

How do we grow our

capacity to sense the whole?

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Following the inner path . . .

Collective Leadership Institute

The inner path is the basis for the way we place ourselves in the context of the task and our way of leading. As a result we participate more

consciously in the movement towards regeneration and sustainability.

How do we strengthen our capacity to engage?

How can we spot innovative solutions?

How do we develop our capacity to lead future possibilities?

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Following the outer path . . .

Collective Leadership Institute

The outer path is the engine for the way we drive the change in consciousness and behavior. With our individual competence and expertise

we can lead towards sustainability in conjunction with others – and make a difference.

Connecting inner & outer paths

How can we find ways to open

up to collective intelligence? How

do we grow our capacity to sense

the whole? How do we strengthen our capacity to engage?

How can we spot innovative solutions?

How do we develop our capacity to lead future possibilities?

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Connecting the inner and the outer paths

Collective Leadership Institute

How can we acces our own humanity?

For me, collective responsibility is responsibility shared. I don’t deny hierarchy, there could be hierarchy, but it is more … that whatever position you have you share the entire concern of the endeavor and then from that vantage point you are committed to complete your contribution. Manager of a multinational company

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Voices of Collective Leaders

Collective Leadership Institute

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Voices of Collective Leaders

Collective Leadership Institute

Is collective leadership possible? You know, it is out there and has always been … it keeps the world in balance, barely, but still … It is enormously powerful and if one pays attention to that, that aspect of oneself, then suddenly one sees and hears how many others there are and how powerful it is, for me it is like a big stream, a river of interconnectedness … of people who have a similar sense of responsibility and a similar focus. Director of an NGO

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Voices of Collective Leaders

Collective Leadership Institute

I do believe collective leadership is possible, I think it is probably the only viable option for the future. There might be times when command and control are needed. But I think collective leadership is not only possible but healthy. I think of it as the way nature operates … as much complexity as needed and as much simplicity as needed, an adaptive system. Public sector representative