Actualizing Evolutionary Co-Leadership: To Evolve a Creative and Responsible Society

The book's theme is that evolutionary co-leadership is needed now to catalyze the emergence of a truly generative and wholesome society. A society where everyone is invited and supported to become a conscious, co-responsible co-creator – developing and expressing their unique gifts, while contributing to the evolution of humanity.

True leadership involves crossing a threshold that opens to the unknown – becoming an example for others in discovering and giving voice to new possibilities to explore and realize. Co-leadership opens a new space where an ensemble of people can jointly act as leaders and inspire others to do the same. To enter the dance of partnering with others – and with life itself – requires the embodiment of an evolutionary perspective. It involves awakening to both one’s singularity and deep connection to the whole, as well as demonstrating innocence (in the sense of not knowing), humility, presence, empathy, and courage. The practice of co-leadership both requires and develops these qualities. An inner dance with various aspects of one’s identity builds the foundation on which the external dance with others becomes possible, in a search for the common good.

Evolutionary co-leadership – to a much greater extent than individual leadership – allows the multiplication of creative actions in service of the whole. These actions will be crucial for accelerating the shift to a society that becomes more conscious of its responsibility for evolution. There is already evidence of this multiplying effect in communities and organizations around the world that span many sectors of society. The future is already here, although it is rarely portrayed in mainstream media.

The book invites the reader to reflect on two questions: What individual and collective choices can I make to act from an evolutionary co-leadership perspective and thus further catalyze and amplify that emergence? What can I learn from those who have already chosen that path, to find my own path as well as the support and challenge I need from others?

Alain Gauthier is an educator, consultant, and coach of executive teams and diverse partnerships on four continents. An HEC (Paris) graduate, Stanford MBA, and former McKinsey senior consultant, he is a co-founder of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) in the US and France, and has contributed to several collective books on leadership development and coaching.

"Alain Gauthier's insightful book on Evolutionary Co-Leadership is itself a marvelous demonstration of leadership in the realm of ideas. Gauthier's extensive experience and highly evolved yet practical perspective clearly shows the way forward toward more effective and moral leadership practices. I highly recommend this book for any one who feels the urge to live up to their potential and make a positive difference in the world."
– Steve McIntosh J.D., author of the books Evolution's Purpose and Integral Consciousness

“Alain Gauthier has written a short but ambitious book… that helps us discern the visible but still fragile emergence of partnership, source and driver of a new and indispensable second Renaissance. He does so by calling on his long and rich experience of practitioner and pioneer of collective intelligence, in close touch with the evolution of companies and other organizations. This is an inspiring, resourceful book for all of us – educators, entrepreneurs, and other builders of a second Renaissance – who are daily endeavoring to co-create an open, learning, innovative, and sustainable society.
– Jacques Chaize, company executive; Former President of the French Center for Young Executives; Author of the books The Quantum Leap – Tools for Managing Companies in the New Economy and The Door of Change Opens from the Inside.