Productive sustainability: Exploring an Ensemble Leadership Repertoire for uncertain times
Dr. Vikram Murthy, AUT University and Waikato Management School, New Zealand and Superior Business Performance Limited, Australia
Abstract: New and previously unacknowledged challenges of sustainability, base of pyramid engagement, and the management of risk in a globalised world, redefine strategic performance for organisations. Based on original research involving senior leadership from a number of Australian and New Zealand organisations, the author recommends leading and managing in contemporary uncertainty using a set of three practices taken together and working in harmony. The first is the practice of “sharing fates and interdependence”; the second is one of “exploring deeper meaning”; and the third is the emerging practice of “Zeitgeist” (i.e. integrating cognition, conscience and collective spirit). These three practices are not manifested individually in exclusion to each other, and/or as a paradigmatic shift from one practice to the other. Rather, successful leadership demonstrates all three practices, as appropriate, as an Ensemble Leadership RepertoireTM in the pursuit of sustainable organisational productivity. This paper is based on the author’s forthcoming book; Please don’t stop the music: An Ensemble leadership repertoire for productive sustainability, and strategic innovation in uncertain times, slated for release in October 2009.
