Actors of the Future: shaping business as sustainable

The Tällberg Forum aims to help individuals reconsider their wider role in a globally integrated society. This society – we now also know - is on a direct collision course with nature, calling for a radical transition in the way we organise ourselves. This poses new strategic challenges to organisations in the private, public and civic spaces, and asks new questions of those leading them, at both a personal and professional level.

In this emerging landscape, understanding the interplay between institutions is becoming as important as understanding the dynamics within them.  Learning to read the complex natural, social and political dynamics of the transition become crucial skills. And in times of greater complexity, having the courage to act on early intuitions grows in importance. This in turn requires personal strength and emotional maturity.

The Tällberg New Leader Programme gives people in early positions of responsibility an opportunity to think through their wider role in society. It seeks to improve the sensitivities and skills that will make them more effective leaders in their organisation and in society. Successful leadership stems from seeing the early trends, and having the courage to act.

The Challenge
The ways in which we currently provide wealth, jobs and security are undermining the planet’s life supporting systems. Our global production is on such a scale that its cumulative impact is altering critical natural cycles with unknown consequences. Yet despite this scale of activity, and the size of the global economy, we fail to deliver adequate standards of living, health and security to a large part of the global population. We need a new path.

The complexity of our globally integrated society, however, means that the room for manoeuvre for each organisation or individual may seem severely restricted. We are tied by limitations of our own design; voters’ priorities, shareholder demands, or the funding structures of civil society. Short term stakeholder interests thus make sure we do not stray too far off course. Over the past decades we have also perfected techniques for enhancing efficiency within organisations. In providing ever stronger incentives to satisfy these stakeholder interests, the screws around us are further tightened.

We now need the leadership – with the personal characteristics, the right models and tools - that can help us break out of the straightjacket. This crucially requires a new mind set, where strategies are formed in the context of a systems perspective of the world. But “systems thinking” is only half the answer. We need to move into “systems doing”. This requires a much greater sensitivity to the dynamics between sectors and organisations, and to the complex interplay between natural, social, political and economic forces. And it requires the ability to act proactively in this complex landscape.

As an integral part of the Tällberg Forum, the Tällberg New Leaders Programme seeks to help emerging leaders build these skills. At its heart, the programme wants to help us all answer the basic question: How on earth can we live together?

The Tällberg New Leader Programme
The New Leader Programme will begin with a discussion on systems literacy and the roles of different sectors in shaping business as sustainable. Guests arriving early for the Tällberg Forum will be invited to provide both challenges and inspiration. After a morning forest walk to re-connect to the nature we too often overlook, the second day will investigate the questions of how to construct “business as sustainable”. This session is thus focussed on building and discussing a vision of where new leadership should take us. Participants will work in groups to enrich these visions, or “futures” throughout the programme.

From this “scene setting” session, the Programme will move on to look at New Leadership from a personal perspective, and provide coaching for participants on how to integrate their visions with their leadership capacity. Support for this day will be given by experienced and inspirational facilitators Oscar Motomura and Mark Gerzon.

The third section of the Programme will provide the possibility for participants to meet thought leaders attending the Tällberg Forum* in areas such as economics (e.g., Stewart Wallis from the New Economics Foundation), global negotiations (e.g., Anders Wijkman, MEP, Jan Eliasson, UN Special Envoy to Sudan), business (e.g., Peter Blom, CEO Triodos Bank), International Legal Affairs (e.g., Hans Corell, former Legal Counsel to the UN), and others.  Participants will engage in dialogue in an informal setting with these leaders and have the opportunity to hear and challenge their visions. (*names to be confirmed closer to the event)

The final part of the programme will function to integrate the personal journey and the inputs from thought leaders using theatre-style presentations of the path forward to sustainability. Groups will play out their visions of the “future they want”– showing their own roles in creating systems change.

The New Leader Programme is also designed to prepare for participants to make the most of the Tällberg Forum. On the final day of the programme, the New Leader team will be challenged to design and test a method for measuring the action potential in the unique global, cross-sector blend of participants at the Tällberg Forum. We will also pair each NLP participant with a mentor, giving them an opportunity engage in one-on-one discussion with a more senior Tällberg Forum participant.

Objectives of the Program
The purpose of the Tällberg Foundation New Leader Programme 2008 is to heighten the awareness of the challenges facing coming generations of leaders and to help individuals formulate their long-term role in the necessary transition to a globally sustainable society.

An intensive programme will provide experience of managing cross-sector complexity, practical use of systems thinking, recognising system tensions and breaking with existing paradigms.

The programme will be structured to bring high level inputs in critical areas and combine this learning with exercises that focus on personal development and goal setting.

Set up and Process
During the run up to Tällberg 2008, young leaders, either working independently or in early positions of responsibility in larger organisations, will be invited according to the criteria that they will both benefit from being participants and be able to make a meaningful contribution the group conversation, both in the New Leader Programme and during the Tällberg Forum itself.

The faculty will consist of a Programme Leader (Tom Cummings, Executive Learning Partnership) and Moderator (Rebecca Oliver, Tällberg Advisors) who will take participants on a personal journey with a steep learning curve in global thinking and global leadership, while also preparing them for the Tällberg 2008 conversation. A select group of mentors (Marcello Palazzi and Colin Jones from the Tällberg Foundation Board and other members of the Tällberg Foundation Network) will be available for coaching throughout the programme. Reflecting the ethos of the 27 year old Tällberg Foundation, New Leader Programme participants will meet global thought leaders, join reflection groups to encourage peer review and learning, while nature walks and cultural activities will bring the whole person into the learning process.

Cost: 2 days Tällberg New Leader Programme, SEK17500 (€1850) plus travel and board

Participants in the Tällberg New Leader Programme will be expected to attend the Tällberg Forum as part of the learning process.

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