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Leading Comments: This Issue

Russ Volckmann

Russ VolckmannI want to thank all of you who sent healing messages and energy to Bill Bates. He is still in the hospital so if you have more of that, please send it his way via the Integral Leadership Review. Note additional comments about his condition in the space usually filled with one of his extraordinary cartoons. We have a guest cartoonist filling in for Bill, Mark Hughes. I am sure you will enjoy his work, as I do.

I am continuously amazed at the growing amount of work that is being done related to an integral, developmental and transdisciplinary approach to the subject of leadership. This issue of Integral Leadership Review demonstrates that very well. Probably the most unusual piece we have every published is the dialogue between Andrew Campbell, a British artist, and Patric Roberts, an American social entrepreneur and explorer of Native American traditions, particularly the Lakota Sioux.

The interview with Ron Cacioppe, member of the Integral Leadership Council and Bureau Chief/Associate Editor for Australia, provides information and perspective in two domains: first, is the successful development of programs for businesses and leaders drawing on integral approaches and second is as a preview to the January 2009 issue of Integral Leadership Review. Ron is guest editing that special issue focused on Australia.

Our articles range from the approach Robin Wood and his colleagues have been developing for Renaissance 2 in Europe (Andrew Campbell has been working on that, too) and his presentation of their first conference, to an exposition on “integrative leadership” at the University of Minnesota by Barbara Crosby. There is a wonderful article by Raghu Ananthanarayan using an SDi lens to examine leadership in Indian corporations. Helen Tichen in Belgium writes of leadership in living systems change and Brian van der Horst in Paris titillates us with the Law of Requisite Variety. Amiel Handelsman gives us some insights into coaching leaders.

Our Notes from the Field are from Mexico, Europe and the US with a special feature on the Integral Theory Conference, including a photo journal of the conference by Kim Smith. Sara Ross fills in for Matthew Kalman who insists he is on paternity leave; Keith Bellamy and Alan Tonkin continue to offer their integral and developmental insights. Then there are some brief notes about recently published books of interest

So! Something for everyone? I hope so. Whether you are a practicing a leader in virtually any domain, involved in consulting and coaching or in leadership development, or a researcher/theorist there is juicy material in this issue.

This is the closing issue for Julia Buchanan and Oliver Ngodo as interns for Integral Leadership Review and its related publications. They did outstanding work during the year and I am delighted to know them. We wish Julia well as she moves on to complete her PhD. Oliver will be continue working with us in this, his final year working on his PhD, particularly in work related to LeadingDigest.

I am pleased to announce that we have three new interns. The first is Kathy E. McKenzie-Mitiku who is pursuing a PhD at North Carolina A&T University, Ryan Schoenbeck at the University of Texas, Austin, and Yung-Pin Lu from Taiwan who is working on his PhD at Marian University in Indiana.

I am also excited to announce that we have three new Bureau Chiefs: Nils Montan in Brazil, Jordan McLeod in Canada, and Brian van der Horst in France. Each of them brings consderable experience to their roles. Nils is an international expert on intellectual property law, Jordan is an entrepreneur and Brian brings international expertise of Neuro-Lisguistic Programming applications. All are interested in the subject of leadership and expanding integral, developmental and transdisciplinary perspectives to this evolving field that is so critical to the future of the planet. There will soon be more information about them and the interns on the “About ILR” page on our website.

Please join me in welcoming all of them.

We all hope you enjoy this issue and find real value added.