Reimagining Sustainability Leadership

Abstract

This research explored how the stakeholders of Integral Without Borders (IWB)—an international think tank and NGO focused on applying integral metatheory to sustainable development—might reimagine sustainability leadership to increase their collective capacity for wise and transforming action in the world. Applying an integral action research methodology in the context of an action research engagement model, eight individual interviews, two focus groups, and an open space lab were conducted with participation from an international cohort of IWB's stakeholders. The study identified fertile territories from which the possibility space for sustainability leadership might be expanded, specifically “four Rs” of integral transformation praxis: (1) revive, (2) reidentify, (3) recode, and (4) reconfigure. Recommendations relevant to IWB's specific leadership goals and development as an organization were also proposed.