Good news is much more compelling than bad news. And with information and data constantly used to portray a bleak path ahead, people can often find little to motivate them out of business-as-usual patterns and lifestyles.

This path, and the skills it will take to negotiate it, requires a renewed form of leadership - one capable of taking on the unique development challenges we are facing. Our dilemma: society does not always agree on what sustainable development looks like, although people are clearer about what it is not. Therefore, our learning curve is steep and one that we need to climb together, learning as we go.

To begin, we can ask these questions

• How can leaders help create these collaborative learning environments and enable others to do great work?
• How can leaders harness the diversity of experiences, views and ideas within groups and guide their positive energies?
• What skills do leaders need to help stakeholders discuss and articulate a shared vision of a sustainable future, and then enable them to work together towards attaining it?

For a more sustainable pattern of development, everyone needs to play a role; change must occur at the level of every individual, especially those who currently might not know where to direct their efforts.

Today’s leadership will be effective when our leaders can show us that a bright future is possible, that all our knowledge and ideas and energies are needed to affect change, and that together we can learn how to do things better—more sustainably—with greater joy and impact than the current stories would have us believe.