stakeholders to it. However, the energy revolution In the long run, we need to transform global society
is not a one-off event. It is an intensifying process into an eco-civilization that strikes a balance
of change, a shift from fossil fuels to renewables . between human well-being and the biosphere.
The energy revolution is based for the great new Dennis Meadows (2016), co-author of the original
electrification - everything that can be electrified Club of Rome Report on Limits to Growth, calls for
will be electrified and that electricity will be system literacy as a prerequisite for this daunting
produced with renewable energy. Living, working, goal of transforming civilization. Through system
producing and moving will open the window literacy and understanding climate change as an
to a future society where energy production is emergency, we realize the human part of nature,
zero-emission and the energy system is almost the energy of society, and the interconnectedness
completely electrified. Alongside increasing the of all things.
popularity of electric car transport, we need to
look at other modes of transport.
It is these principles that can be promoted by
LEADERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE –
FROM EARTH TO MARS
AND BACK...*
by Dr. Thomas Mengel, University of New Brunswick, Canada
political decision-making, which must increasingly
The world’s future as an electrified peer to peer listen to the voice of the citizens and be able to society based on renewable energy will combine read indicators of new growth that clearly illustrate human, natural and technological, safe and sustainability. Indicators are, at best, tools for meaningful lives. In addition to pioneers, we understanding change and the actions it requires. Problem-solving, communication, and facilitation contemporary leadership models recognizing
need visionary transformational leaders who look Comprehensive, systemic and long-term foresight are urgently needed leadership skills. Various that leaders increasingly face complex and
far into the future, realize the systemic nature of is not just about building an understanding of the sectors are desperately searching for emerging dynamic problems. Leaders need to respond
the world, and connect everything, and by their interconnectedness of knowledge and things. It is leaders with such competencies. Yet, those well- to multifaceted situational challenges of the
example, pave the way for a new, better world simply a necessity in our turbulent and complex rounded and competent candidates seem hard to present with a “systems perspective”, as he claims
(Hoyle 2006). world. find in sufficient numbers. In this essay, I propose in his well-attended seminars. But, in the light
a trans-disciplinary model of Post-Contemporary of significantly more complex and even faster
Leadership (PoCo) and apply it to a preliminary changing environments: “where do we go from
analysis of how Sci Fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson here?” (Harari)
REFERENCES
Bardi, Hugo (2017) The Seneca Effect: Why Growth is Slow but Collapse is Rapid. A report to the Club of Rome.
imagines future leadership will unfold in his Mars
Trilogy.
Few
publications
have
explicitly
addressed
leadership challenges of the future. In 2015
Springer International Publishing AG. Our understanding of leadership is focusing on the International Leadership Association had
an inspiring leader that is ahead of or above the invited scholars and practitioners to imagine
Daly, Herman (2015). Economics for a Full World. Great Transition Initiative (June 2015). crowd. Any web-search for “leadership images” what leadership might look like in 2050. In the
substantiates that claim. resulting issue of the Building Bridges Series,
Heinonen, Sirkka and Karjalainen, Joni (2018). Electrification in a peer to peer society - a new story for Finland’s
future. TUTU Publications 1/2018. Futures Research Centre, Turku. (in Finnish, to be published in English in 2019) Leadership education programs often focus on
https://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/ffrc/julkaisut/tutu-julkaisut/Documents/Tutu_1-2018.pdf profitable quick fixes by developing skills and
Hoyle, John R. (2006). Leadership and Futuring. Making Visions Happen. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks, California.
behaviors that were successful in the past to apply
to current challenges. Even tomorrow’s problems,
Jackson suggests a multi-dimensional approach
to leadership covering different spans of time
and reaching into the future. Introducing their
quantum leadership model, Piel and Johnson
urge us to consider scientific paradigms resulting
Malaska, Pentti (2011) A more innovative direction has been ignored. In: Understanding Neo-growth; An however, may quickly become history in the Invitation to Sustainable Production. TeliaSonera Finland Plc. Helsinki, p. 200–210. http://www.sonera.fi/ context of exponential developments in many ia/13069ab55806de22e8955bc2a3f1afeab17b28bd/ fields of practice. Meadows, Dennis (2016). Why Didn´t We Learn? Will We? Presentation at the Club of Rome Conference, Berlin. Meaningful leadership paradigms, MIT educator Leadership authors Suderman and Foster discuss
Otto Scharmer claims, need to go beyond humanizing the workplace and “we-leadership”.
“paddling backwards” or “muddling through” the Using strategic foresight approaches they describe
challenges of the present and trying to reestablish several scenarios in the context of people-oriented
the alleged stability of the past. Truly innovative organizational development.
Randers, Jorgen, Rockström, Johan, Stoknes, Per Espen, Golüke, Ulrich, David Collste and Sarah Cornell (2018).
Transformation is feasible. How to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals within Planetary Boundaries.
Report to the Club of Rome. Stockholm Resilience Institute. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/publications/
artiklar/2018-10-17-transformation-is-feasible---how-to-achieve-the-sustainable--development-goals-within-
planetary-boundaries.html
von Weizsäcker, Ernst & Wijkman, Anders (2018). Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the
Destruction of the Plane. A report to the Club of Rome. Springer.
24
HUMAN FUTURES
approaches to leadership are urgently needed.
from chaos and complexity theories and to
better integrate uncertainty and decoherence
into leadership. In their model of Murmuration
With his “Theory U” Scharmer invites us to
Ron Heifetz’s work on “adaptive leadership” overcome the present abyss by opening our
at Harvard University was one of the first minds, hearts, and by connecting our current self
with our future emerging self.
HUMAN FUTURES
25