Leading Beyond Sustainability

Book excerpt: The 2020s present a decade of unprecedented disruption. We have now reached a point where people are overwhelmed and numb to the ever-present news of threat after threat, and challenge after challenge. It’s time for leaders to tell a different story of six powerful aspirations – connection, vitality, peace, abundance, opportunity and wisdom. This is a vision "beyond sustainability", to inspire organisations and people to bring the best of who they are into service of the brighter future that is already emerging. Alongside the obvious disruptive challenges of climate change, wars and the pandemic, technology has evolved at a blistering pace. Through technological advances in five sectors – energy, transport, materials, food and manufacturing – we are already transforming the world as we know it. The book seeks to give readers the confidence that there is real hope for a brighter future for our world using these developments and other innovations. The text is supported by inspiring case studies of people and organisations who are already doing amazing things. Crucially, the book highlights the many ways that leaders and organisations can contribute to a better world and encourages dialogue between organisations and people who might not naturally connect. It describes 12 archetypes in organisations that must collaborate in teams to deliver solutions. It also emphasises the need for wise leadership and conscious alignment of everyone to our "brighter future". A manifesto for positive change, this is the perfect book to help turn the UN Sustainable Development Goals into action and to envisage a positive future for leaders at every level in organisations.