Integral Leadership Review

Dear Russ, It is an honor to know you and a grace to belong to the wide and yet tight-knit community of integral, holistic, evolutionary thinkers and practitioners who are bringing into being a new consciousness into the planet. I want to thank you for your leadership and clarity of vision. You have been a […]

Dear Russ, Deeply sorry to hear you are gone. While we have not been in contact for a few years, our contact concerning the publication in 2012 of an essay I wrote about Yin, Yang and Thinking Styles has meant a lot to me. As did the few appreciative responses it got from all over […]

Re-imagining Russ Ten years ago, Russ hunted me down on the internet.  Maybe it was because I had been European Coordinator for Ken Wilber’s  Integral Institute, maybe he just ran across one of my old articles about my “Law of Requisite Contrariety.”  What a charmer! He convinced me to re-write it for the ILR,  author […]

My experience with Russ began in 2004, when we were both invited to become board members for ARINA, and subsequently both became involved in Integral Review. I remember being enchanted by the breadth and depth of his knowledge, and the deep curiosity he had towards learning from everyone and everything! I also experienced the vast […]

Our lives intersected in so many accidental ways that I thought it was destiny speaking to us. We were both graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley. I first met Russ during a protest rally on campus. I just knew him as Russ and didn’t know much about his history or biography. I […]

Footprints to Integral Leadership ‘In a quiet way, you shake the world” – Mahatma Gandhi I only saw a slight portion of Russ’s life, like watching the light from a candle through a narrow slit a long way away. I live in Perth, Australia, Russ was in the United States, a long way away. My […]

I find myself caught up by the horrible surprise of Russ’ passing. And even surprised by my surprise. For I did not know Russ that well, except toward the end of his work-life. Russ was our publisher with Eros/Power: Love in the Spirit of Inquiry, Integral Publishers, 2016.  Indeed it was the wonderful personal connection that my […]

I first got to know Russ at the Vision/Action ODN Conference in San Francisco. One of the results of that conference was the publication of the Bay Area ODN called Vision/Action. I was a member of its Editorial Board and Russ was the Editor. He encouraged me to write for it and provided keen editorial […]

I was talking with Matthew Kalman (founder of London Integral Circle) and the conversation took a strange turn: Matthew: “Russ Volckmann getting a group of people together to discuss Integral Leadership … and I think you would make a good participant” Keith: “Russ who?” Matthew: “The publisher of Integral Leadership Review.” Keith: “Publisher of what?” […]

I did not know Russ personally. We had a few brief email exchanges over the years about some of the ILR content. But I sure was an avid reader of the review. I especially enjoyed his 12-part discussion series with Mark Edwards. ILR was, and hopefully under new leadership will remain, a significant contribution to […]

My heart is sore as I write this letter to Russ. We never met in person (with my only mental image of him for years being his e-tag cartoon). Instead, we emailed and Skyped over a period of 11 years. He first reached out to me in October 2006. He wanted to review a copy […]

Russ was the constant, good-natured background of the integral movement.  Wherever two or three or a hundred people came together around an integral theme, there was Russ recording, interviewing, laughing, appreciating others, asking the apt question, encouraging your writing, helping new work to appear — especially, of course, through the Integral Leadership Review and, more […]

Well here we are, towards the end of another issue of ILR, not to mention another year! This year has certainly not been without its challenges, be they personal, related to Integral Leadership Review, or the world at large. It seems society has reached a transition point, and history is waiting to see in which […]

This is an important issue, and honestly, I’m not sure where to start. This year marks 16 years since the founding of Integral Leadership Review. At the same time, this issue also marks the passing of its founder, Russ Volkmann. For the past five years it has been a true honor and a privilege to […]

“My aspiration is to bring the voices of integral/developmental/transdisciplinary/complexity oriented thinkers and writers to a larger audience. I seek to bridge the gaps between cultures, domains, worldviews, thinkers and doers…” Russ Volckmann, Linked In Account

“A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994)

Susanne Cook-Greuter, Ken Wilber, and Beena Sharma Introduction Co-authored by leaders in the field of integral and adult developmental theory, this review expresses a three-fold hope: We want to raise awareness regarding the importance of rigorous research among scholar-practitioners engaged in theory building and research in psychology. We invite dialogue on these key issues among […]

Robin Lincoln-Wood with Terri O’Fallon   In this interview, Robin Lincoln-Wood and Terri O’Fallon discuss how they both became interested in integral leadership and state development, and how it has impacted their professional careers! RLW:  Welcome to this interview between Terri O’Fallon and Robin Wood for Integral Leadership Review. We’re going to be discussing how Terri […]

William R. Torbert* *With deep thanks for the improvements suggested by Aliki Nicolaides, Mary Stacey, Richard Izard, Nancy Wallis, and Elaine Herdman-Barker. As shown in this review, fifty years of research on real-world practice, guided by the Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI) paradigm of social science and social action, have documented more powerful impacts than […]

Rick Fenwick Jr.  Abstract In many organizational settings, companies use the team concept in order to accomplish organizational goals in a timely and efficient manner. In manufacturing settings, organizations use the team concept to complete tasks such as building products in bulk quantities, as well as provide safety to employees. In this type of setting, […]

Mark Bell Abstract Movement toward a new theory is framed on distinctions between toxic leadership and juvenile leadership in that toxic leadership cannot fully explain certain aspects, behaviors, and actions of certain negative, dysfunctional, destructive, or otherwise ‘bad’ leadership realities. Juvenile leadership involves four distinct elements including pettiness, emotionalism, connivingness, and dramaturgical activity. Juvenile leadership […]

Jaap Geerlof  Abstract The complexifying world places contemporary leaders for major challenges in leading organizations. The progressive complexity of the organizational and social context often surfaces as paradox. Surprisingly, paradoxes are hardly addressed in leadership epistemology, or in leadership development models. Contrarily, management and organizational science scholars have embraced the necessity to engage paradox in […]

Ron Cacioppe Summary This article reviews the definitions, characteristics and research dealing with mindfulness, meditation and flow and their positive effects on individual health, interpersonal relations, workplace engagement and performance improvement. This article explores the role of integral leadership to provide conditions for mindfulness in flow (mindflow) using an integral framework. There is growing interest […]

Tom Murray Overview This article began as a series of short white papers providing various types of background information about STAGES and its predecessors. Its sections are relatively independent and readers with prior knowledge should be able to skip to and read each independently, or in any order.  For those new to the field, it […]

Terri O’Fallon, Tom Murray, Geoff Fitch, Kim Barta, and John Kesler Executive Summary Our goal in this article is to respond to the Critique‘s call for rigor by providing detailed explanations, and also, to provide further answers to questions and misconceptions that may exist about the STAGES model—therefore the article is rather long. For those who want […]

Alain B. Volz Based on traditional values of the Dagomba tribe in Ghana Northern Region and 21stcentury Holistic principles we are developing a Sharing Economy called Leap into Life. The last 2 years we have been working from grass root level in Ghana and The Netherlands on the design of an informal economy where people […]

Integral Publishers Partner and Chief of Acquisitions and Editorial, Jeannie Carlisle interviews Keith Witt about his latest work, Jeannie: Thanks for joining us today, Keith. It’s always such a pleasure to speak with you about your work. You are one of the most passionate and joyful authors we have the privileged to publish. Could you […]

Russell Fitzpatrick Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. (2016). Harvard Business Review Press. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey incorporates decades of personal developmental research into the world of organizational development. Any fan of personal developmental models knows the […]

Jon Freeman John Bunzl and Nick Duffell (2017). The Simpol Solution. Peter Owen Limited This is a good book, engaging, well written and with many interesting ideas which deserve consideration.  It has the major virtue of being original and distinctive; there are no well-trodden paths here. It starts from a familiar place, i.e. we know things are […]

Ron Cacioppe and Michael Fox Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux is a ground breaking book that describes how the functioning and structure of organisations evolves over time to match the level of development of human consciousness. Organisations go through stages that are radically different, becoming more productive, collaborative and reach a higher level of functioning. Each […]