OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

	Thierry C. Pauchant October 31, 2004 www.leadographies.com

The Research Project: An Overview

Abraham Lincoln defined leadership as a growth process - a course of development and maturation - which encourages people to act from “the better angels of their nature”. Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Rachel Carson and many others demonstrated the power of such leadership. In the process, they changed the world around them. Imagine what could happen in our societies if all leaders were as purposeful, meaningful, ethical, integral? What would happen if we were developing in ourselves and others some of these same qualities?

In the first systematic research effort of its kind – involving one hundred researchers around the world over a ten year period (leadership scholars, executives, consultants, graduate students, etc.), – this research project explores practical yet profound questions about this more integral type of leadership: What are leaders who are considered to be operating at a more mature level of development doing differently? How have they achieved this maturity? How can we help future leaders to undergo such development?

Answers to these questions could modify our current views of leadership and change the way leaders are chosen and trained. These answers could also help us to address the four great challenges of our world, as defined by UNESCO: The challenges of peace, poverty, ecological viability and collective meaning and purpose. Integral leaders are not only men and women of great principles. They also help us to effectively tackle the most challenging problems of our world.

In order to stimulate this project’s impact and assure its scientific validity, we will publish over 10 years 100 books on 100 integral leaders, allowing conclusions to be drawn across time, space, cultures and religions. These short and jargon-free books will not be standard biographies but – what we call – “leadographies”. Leadographies are inspirational and didactic books written for leaders-to-be, leaders who want to learn and people who wish to work with them. These volumes go beyond a mere chronology, documenting the innovative actions of integral leaders in four interrelated domains, i.e. their behaviors with others, the organizational tools they use, the shared meanings they promote and the development of self they encourage in themselves and others. Further, these volumes go beyond the one man show and issues of fame, power, status or charisma, so common in traditional leadership studies. Rather, they document how these perfectible human beings – like all of us – have grown in many domains of life, including the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, ethical and spiritual domains. Lastly, each volume is supported by a synthesis of more than 1,000 pages of data carefully chosen and coded into a computerized database by a multidisciplinary and multicultural research team, drawing from biographical, institutional and historical data. Upon its completion, this database will include in excess of 100,000 pages on 100 integral leaders. This will allow the emergence of rigorous findings across time and space.

n order to promote the use of these books in education in universities and training in organizations, we will complement this 100 book series with teaching aids and seminars, didactic case studies, computerized instruments, pedagogical videos, multimedia presentations, conferences and workshops, and a dedicated web site. Our hope is that this multifaceted material – as well as the 100 collaborators involved in this study – will inspire the men and women working in private and public organizations to engage themselves in integral development, individually and collectively. As opposed to mimicking the behaviors of famous leaders – a common practice in current leadership training programs – the great challenges of our world require that we become the best we can be. Integral leaders seem all driven by the same vocation: they are helping themselves and others to act from the better angels of their own natures. This research project will document this process and translate it in concrete terms.

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The Project's Unique Nature

• Systematizes the work of avant-garde scholars who have developed the notions of ethics and integrity in leadership (e.g. Chester Barnard, Warren Bennis, Robert Coles, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Max De Pree, Peter Drucker, Howard Gardner, Daniel Goleman, Robert Greenleaf, Charles Handy, Frances Hesselbein, Robert Kegan,. Fred Kofman, James Kouzes, James O’Toole, Howard Owen, James MacGregor Burns, Abraham Maslow, Ian Mitroff, Mary Parker Follett, Barry Posner, Robert Quinn, Peter Senge, William Torbert, Peter Vaill, Margaret Wheatley, Ken Wilber, Danah Zohar...).
• Compares ancient and current practices in leadership, rather than drawing solely upon famous contemporary leaders
• Integrates all cultures and religions, rather than focusing primarily on North American or occidental examples
• Moves beyond the behavioral bias of many leadership studies through the use of an integral model, including data on behaviors, organizational strategies, culture and maturation of self
• Surpasses the traditional static view of leaders and of their actions through the use of a developmental model of growth in maturity and consciousness
• Transcends the idealization of famous and status-defined leaders through the inclusion of integral leaders with neither fame or charisma nor formal status
• Overcomes the gender bias of many leadership studies by including women and men in equal numbers
• Focuses less on leaders themselves than on the process of leadership and its overall context (geology, climate, history, education, culture, religion, politics, economics, technological infrastructure, etc.)
• Abandons anecdotal data and positivist methodologies, through the cross-fertilizing of qualitative and quantitative data drawn from an unique database
• Includes and examines the entire span of human life, including the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, ethical and spiritual domains.

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Unique Characteristics for Disseminating the Results

• Benefits from the synergistic effect created by a 100 book series
• Aims for publication in at least three languages: English, French and Spanish, more if possible
• Creates a new literary style, a “leadography”, i.e. short and concrete books targeted for the general public but of high scientific grounding
• Provides cumulative results in different editions of a synthesis book, to be published as the study evolves, i.e. a first edition on 7 integral leaders, a second on 20, etc., up to 100 leaders
• Generates multifaceted material for assisting education and training: teaching aids and seminars, didactic case studies, computerized instruments, pedagogical videos, multimedia presentations, conferences and workshops, dedicated web site, etc.
• Involves a common effort by 100 researchers across the world (leadership scholars, executives, consultants, graduate students, etc.) to disseminate the research’s results (articles, books, media interviews, organizational interventions, conferences, workshops, consultations, coaching relationships, etc.)
• Has the support of CEOs, leaders and world experts in leadership (see below)
• Benefits from the inspirational nature of the study as it is based on the concrete lives of some of the most effective and admired men and women in history.

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Practical Applications

• Contribution to leadership theory, practice, education and training, including the enrichment of major issues in leadership, i.e. vision, motivation, empowerment, decision-making, ethics, management of self, coaching, etc.
• Theorization and concretization of the contribution of the wisdom traditions in leading private, public, governmental and associative organizations
• Documentation of innovative inter-personal behaviors and organizational tools used by leaders who have mastered a mature level of development
• Better understanding of the process involved in the maturation of leaders with implications for education, training and coaching
• Models and instruments for choosing leaders with high integrity and ethics
• Processes and tools for integral leadership education and training
• Instruments for evaluating the impact of developmental programs in effective and ethical leadership
• Concretization of the role of the wisdom traditions’ practices and values in the leadership and management of organizations
• Contribution to the integration of science, religion and governance in society and organizations
• Enrichment of our understanding of the multiple effects of advanced human development in ethics and the management of complex issues
• Inspiration of youth and adults for courageously developing their leadership capacities.  

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Support by CEOs, Leaders and Leadership Experts
(contact information upon request)

• Warren G. Bennis, Distinguished Professor and Founding Chairman, Leadership Institute, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
• Paule Doré, Executive Vice-President and Chief Corporate Officer, CGI, fifth largest information technology services firm in North America , 20,000 employees
• Robert Dutton, President and CEO, Rona Inc., leading Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home improvement and gardening products, 20,000 employees
• Rémy Tremblay, President and CEO, Adecco Canada , world leader in Human Resources solutions, 15,000 employees

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Planning (first 3 years of a 10 years endeavor)
(Contingent upon additional funding)

Although our team has secured the funds necessary to begin this work, we certainly have need of additional support to bring the project to fruition. We hope you will join this project in different capacities (authorship of a leadography, financial investment, logistical assistance, network development, etc.). Please contact Damien Fière, director of development at the Chair: Damien.fiere@hec.ca,
tel: 514-340-7145.

Thierry C. Pauchant

Director of the Leadographies Book Series
Professor and Holder of the Chair in Ethical Management, HEC Montreal , Canada
Consulting Faculty, The Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara , USA
Thierry.pauchant@hec.ca

To know more

Volckmann, R. (2004). Integral leadership. The 100 book project. An interview with Thierry C. Pauchant: A journalistic interview on the project, August, 4, 3.

Pauchant, T.C. (2004). Integral leadership: A research proposal, Journal of Organizational Change Management : An academic paper on the theory behind the project and its scientific methodology.

Pauchant, T.C. (2004). Integral leadership: The case of Bill George and Medtronic Inc. Summit on Corporate Culture and Spirituality: A Power Point presentation of the project and its applicability to the leadership of Bill George while CEO of Medtronic Inc., Bangalore, India, November 20.

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