AACSB Accelerators:
Emerging Competencies for Societal Impact
Briefing | Updated March 8, 2023
Balancing profit with purpose, people, and planet is undoubtedly good for society, but it's also good for business. Complex global environmental and social issues require attention from leaders across sectors with wide-ranging competencies. AACSB is calling for systemic change through the expertise and action of business leaders and business educators worldwide to rethink the mindsets, competencies, and skills needed for future leaders to have a positive impact on society. The AACSB Accelerators work to create a new business philosophy and leadership framework as well as guide business schools in developing educated, skilled, and empathetic leaders who can succeed within business models where success metrics include sustainability and purpose in addition to profit. Through its accelerators, AACSB convenes cohorts comprising business and nonprofit executives, government officials, and business school leaders and learners focused on rapidly building the leadership framework that will prepare individuals to lead in a new desired future.
Explore the outputs and emerging competencies from the accelerators as AACSB works alongside societal impact leaders to design the next approach to business leadership.
The Need for Systemic Change
“The collective power of AACSB’s network has the potential to shift the 100-year construct from a focus on profit to one that also includes purpose, people, and planet.” —Caryn Beck-Dudley, President and CEO, AACSB International
Business and business education leaders agree that the way we develop and educate is at a turning point and that significant, even systemic, change will be needed. Familiar constructs may no longer serve the future we are envisioning and working toward. Significant, even paradigm-shifting, change is needed for organizations to truly transition into entities that create and promote positive societal impact rather than contribute—whether in reality or perception—to the world’s challenges.
The definitions for successful leadership are evolving and now account for how organizations are contributing positive societal change, including the health and success of a broader group of stakeholders, climate action, and more equitable economies. As the source for current and future leaders, business schools play an important role in shaping and actualizing this needed change. It is now evident that doing what is in the best interest of all stakeholders, including people and the planet, is also good for business; therefore, it stands to reason that achieving positive societal impact will lead to greater success in business.
Over the course of three months, each accelerator cohort identified competencies that will shape how businesses, schools, and learners will embrace leadership in the future. Accelerator One members engaged in deep exploration to name three holistic and interconnected leadership competencies. Accelerator Two participants identified four new competencies to complement the existing three, focusing on how the competencies might be leveraged specifically within business education. All together, these seven competencies offer a guide for shaping societal impact leadership in business education.
Following the accelerators, AACSB will engage in research and validation of the groups’ recommendations that will ultimately formalize into a leadership competency structure. The resulting framework will impact the curriculum and preparation of the more than 4 million enrolled students at AACSB member business schools, as well as the development of current and emerging leaders at multinational organizations.
Emerging Competencies
The AACSB Accelerators resulted in seven competencies for business schools to prioritize in their leadership development education. In addition to the competencies themselves, below are several recommended practices—many of which are in use at innovative business schools today—for business educators to consider as they develop tomorrow’s societal impact leaders.
Seven Competencies of a Societal Impact Leader:
- Effectively developing perspectives that help advance society requires connection to others, organizations and institutions, and the environment. Continuing to apply collaborative learning projects in the curriculum can provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems and learn from the perspectives of other stakeholders.
- Experiential activities, such as design thinking workshops create safe spaces for students and faculty to test ideas and learn from others with worldviews outside the traditional business domain and co-create solutions to business problems.
- Co-teaching by cross-sector, cross-disciplinary faculty exposes learners to different perspectives and real-world experiences that help bridge gaps between theory and practice and helps learners understand the interconnective nature of business.
“We are a group of people motivated by aspiration or desperation. The ability to dream big, the power to imagine the impossible, not what is, but what can become.” —Co-Creation Working Group
- Promoting ethical decision-making in business education encourages students to develop leadership skills grounded in compassion and social responsibility. Strong interpersonal connections with others enable leaders to rally and solve future challenges.
- Through a deeper understanding of one's true self, leaders can effectively engage with others with humility and recognition of everyone's unique contributions. Business schools can foster a culture of diversity and inclusion by incorporating diverse perspectives into the curriculum, providing equal opportunities to all students, and creating a safe and respectful learning environment.
- All leaders should be skilled communicators, but compassionate leaders are also expert listeners. Incorporating mindfulness practices, such as meditation and reflection, into learning experiences can help students develop self-awareness, empathy, and compassion.
“Leadership is about influence, and influence is about relationships. [You] cannot influence someone you do not have a relationship with.” —Austin Okere, Founder and Vice Chairman, CWG Plc
- Depolarizing leaders develop self-awareness and strive to understand the cultural and contextual elements and interdependencies that can lead to tensions. Applying social and emotional learning in business education enables students to develop self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and relationship-building skills.
- The use of dialogue and deliberation across learning experiences facilitates open and respectful communication among students, faculty, and practitioners who have differing ideological and political perspectives, preserving diversity of thought. This practice helps learners become adept at mediating disputes, creating nonjudgmental spaces, and seeking to understand circumstances instead of ascribing blame.
- Polarization often results from conditions of uncertainty and anxiety. Preserving cognitive diversity that values different ways of thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making promotes critical thinking, creativity, and innovation and reduces ideological and political polarization. Embracing various cognitive approaches allows individuals to avoid finger-pointing and move toward collective problem-solving.
“[Consider] refuting binary thinking; embracing the nuance—there is always a third way, that’s why I am always incredibly happy with the new generations that are not so binary in their thinking.” —Jan-Willem Vosmeer, Global Manager, Sustainable Development & Stakeholder Engagement, Heineken
- As a common staple in business education, case studies allow learners to analyze and solve complex business problems and make sound judgments. This approach can include situations focused on ethical dilemmas, organizational challenges, and strategic decision-making that allow students to apply their analytical and decision-making skills.
- Employing ethics education in the curriculum allows learners to develop their reasoning and decision-making skills, particularly knowing when further information is needed. This approach can include courses in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable business practices that challenge students to think critically about the ethical implications of business decisions.
- Integrating interdisciplinary courses into the curriculum, such as the Psychology of Consumer Behavior or Sustainable Business Practices, helps cultivate a mindset beyond binary thinking and encourages students to find solutions that support the common good.
- A greater emphasis on sustainability education can help students understand the environmental and societal impacts of business activities and how these impacts are interrelated. By including courses that focus on topics such as sustainable business practices, corporate social responsibility, and environmental management, students develop a systems-thinking mindset and recognize that advancing society requires connection to others, to organizations and institutions, and to the environment.
- Through cross-disciplinary learning, students collaborate with other fields of study and co-create solutions that advance positive societal and environmental impact. Interdisciplinary courses, team projects, and guest speakers from different fields expose students and faculty to others with worldviews outside the traditional business domain.
- Encouraging learners to consider all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and investors, as fundamentally interconnected with differing perspectives and needs prepares them to understand how they can garner influence and meet the needs of a wider audience of people.
- It is human nature to seek resolution amid contradictory ideas, as sitting in paradox is inherently uncomfortable. However, leaders who practice dialectical thinking can hold and reconcile two seemingly opposing viewpoints and gain new insights and opportunities. Students should be exposed to experiences that develop their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills so they can navigate complex and uncertain business environments.
- Effective leaders strive to consider and adapt to multiple ways of knowing and facilitate difficult dialogue by listening actively and communicating objectives clearly while suspending judgment.
- Dealing with conflict constructively requires leaders to address challenges as they arise and create open spaces that preserve diversity of thought. Cultivating learners’ conflict resolution and negotiation skills helps them navigate disagreement constructively and respectfully, create a culture of collaboration and cooperation, and reduce polarization and divisiveness.
“Paradox is a lens to view situations that are subjective to individual world views as well as parallel world views.” —Heather MacCleoud, Chief Network Officer, Ashoka U, Ashoka
- Providing experiential learning in the context of real-world situations is essential to helping students develop the practical skills, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills that prepare them for the business world. Such active learning should aim to emphasize useful, real-world experience through hands-on activities, simulations, and reflective exercises.
- Incorporating self-awareness exercises allows space for learners to discover their purpose and passions by examining their mindsets, feelings, and behaviors and how these attributes influence their interactions. This approach can include journaling, mindfulness exercises, and other self-reflection practices.
- Self-assessment encourages learners to become more self-aware and identify areas where changes are needed to pursue continuous personal growth. Through reflection and feedback from peers and mentors, learners can further hone their self-assessment skills.
Frameworks for Change
Methodology
AACSB commissioned a team at Solvable, with expertise in guiding organizational change, to design and facilitate the accelerator journey. The team leveraged several frameworks and exercises including meditation, visualization, and multisensory teaching to create an exploratory and visual process, centering on concepts modeled by Three Horizons. This framework, founded by Bill Sharpe and the International Futures Forum, allows leaders to strategically visualize a new, desired future state in which their organizations can operate. Each “horizon” curve represents the trajectories toward a desired future and the transitional activities required for leaders to emerge from their status quo.
The key objective in using this framework was to challenge participants to reimagine their future; intentionally let go of activities and systems that no longer serve a purpose; and engage in paradigm-shifting actions, mindsets, and skill sets. The framework helped participants centralize on authentic, even radical, transformation and avoid continually reproducing the same systems that contribute to many of the societal issues we currently face.
Facilitators, Contributors, and Participants
Facilitators
In collaboration with AACSB, the accelerator journey was designed and facilitated by Solvable. The team cofacilitated the five workshops, numerous competency working groups, and one-on-one dialogues with cohort members.
 Mary Bartlett, Solvable |
 Anna Denardin, Solvable |
 Charles Holmes, Solvable |
 Adam Lerner, Solvable |
Advisory Circle
An advisory circle of distinguished thinkers and doers in their respective fields was assembled to stretch the thinking of the accelerator participants through their engagement. Each advisor presented content and practices during one of the workshops as well as directly collaborated with a working group on a specific competency related to their field.
Accelerator One Advisory Circle
 Peter Block, Facilitator, Consultant and Author, United States Advisor expertise: social capital community development |
 Denise Deluca, Educator, Consultant and Author, United States Advisor expertise: biomimicry and engineering |
Arturo Escobar, Educator and Author, Colombia and United States Advisor expertise: decolonization, sustainable development, and anthropology |
 Renée Lertzman, Psychologist, Consultant and Author United States 12 Advisor expertise: emotional intelligence, climate psychology |
 Cathy-Mae Karelse, Systems Change Consultant, United Kingdom and South Africa Advisor expertise: social transformation, reconciliation, and mindfulness |
 Andri Snær Magnason, Author, Director, and Educator, Iceland Advisor expertise: language, imagination, and climate change |
Accelerator Two Advisory Circle
 Vanessa Andreotti, Educator and Author, Canada Advisor expertise: education pedagogy decolonization, futures |
Marty Linsky, Educator and Author, United States Advisor expertise: leadership, management, politics |
 Jemilah Mahmood, Educator, Diplomat, NGO Leader, and Physician, Malaysia Advisor expertise: planetary health, diplomacy, humanitarian response |
 Henry Mintzberg, Educator and Author, Canada Advisor expertise: leadership, management, organizations |
 Bill Reed, Consultant, Architect, and Educator, United States Advisor expertise: regeneration, green building, living systems design |
Participants
Thirty-two senior impact leaders joined the accelerator cohorts from business, the social sector, government, and academia. The cohorts offered a new understanding of our existing and potential futures. Most of the leaders brought decades of impact experience to the accelerator for a rich peer learning environment.
Accelerator One Participants
 Michiel Bakker, Vice President, Global Workplace Programs, Google |
 Mikhail Davis, Director of Technical Sustainability Interface |
 Maria Guevara, International Medical Secretary, Médecins Sans Frontières |
 Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner Government of Wales |
 Nick Igneri, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer, AACSB International |
 Kristin E. Joys, Chair, Teaching & Curriculum Innovation, B Academics |
 Steve Kappler, President, Enactus United States |
 Heather MacCleoud, Chief Network Officer, Ashoka U, Ashoka |
 Austin Okere, Founder and Vice Chairman, CWS Plc |
 Katie Pedley, Director R&D Liaison Global Higher Education Educational Testing Service (ETS) |
 Olivia Scriven, Federal Disaster Recovery Officer, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) |
 Erik Thrasher, Vice Present, Strategic Partnerships, and Global Lead, DE&I Publishing, Wiley |
 Jan-Willem Vosmeer, Global Manager, Sustainable Development & Stakeholder Engagement, Heineken |
Accelerator Two Participants
 Randall Bass, Vice President, Strategic Education Initiatives; Professor, College of Arts & Sciences, Georgetown University |
 Roel Beetsma, Dean, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam |
 Elena Beleska-Spasova, Pro-Dean for Education and Innovation, Henley Business School, University of Reading |
 Jan Beyne, Researcher, Sustainable Transformation Lab, University of Antwerp |
 Henry Bradford, Associate Dean of the Bachelor in Business Administration, IE Business School |
 Manuela Brusoni, Deputy Dean for Accreditation, SDA Bocconi School of Management |
 Tommaso Buganza, Professor of Leadership and Innovation, Politecnico di Milano School of Management |
 Steven Cady, Director, Doctoral Program in Organizational Development and Change, Schmidthorst College of Business, Bowling Green State University |
 Erik B. Foley, Director, Center for the Business of Sustainability, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University |
 Aaron Jackson, Senior Associate Dean, Graduate School of Business, Bentley University |
 Fadi Kattan, Dean, School of Business Administration, Bethlehem University |
 Robyn McKenna, Regional Business Director, McGraw Hill |
 Rohan Nipunge, Young Impact Leader, University of Colorado Denver |
 Gretchen Phillips, Managing Director, Reimagining Capitalism, Omidyar Network |
 Shona Quinn, Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher |
 Al Renshaw, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, AACSB International |
 Sophia Rodriguez, Young Impact Leader, National 4-H Council |
 Leia Ross, Young Impact Leader, Appalachian State University |
 Daius Steiner, Young Impact Leader, Simon Fraser University; Curriculum Change Coordinator, Re_Generation |
Further Reading
The following works guided the thinking around the Accelerator One competencies:
- David Bohm, On Dialogue
- Melanie Goodchild, “Relational Systems Thinking: That’s How Change Is Going to Come, From Our Earth Mother"
- Jonathan Haidt, “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives”
- Jason J. Jay and Gabriel Grant, “How We Get Stuck: Breakdowns in Conversation,” in Breaking Through Gridlock
- Dachner Keltner, “The Compassion Instinct”
- George Lakoff, “Why It Matters How We Frame the Environment”
- Wendy K. Smith, Andy Binns, and Michael L. Tushman, “Complex Business Models: Managing Strategic Paradoxes Simultaneously”
- Wendy K. Smith, Miriam Erez, Sirkka Jarvenpaa, Marianne W. Lewis, and Paul Tracey, “Adding Complexity to Theories of Paradox, Tensions, and Dualities of Innovation and Change”
- Wendy K. Smith and Marianne Lewis, “Toward A Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Organizing”
- Clara Strauss, Billie Lever Taylor, Jenny Gu, Willem Kuyken, Ruth Baer, Fergal Jones, and Kate Cavanagh, “What Is Compassion and How Can We Measure It? A Review of Definitions and Measures”
- Daniel Christian Wahl, “Facing Complexity Means Understanding Ambiguity and Uncertainty,” in Designing Regenerative Cultures
- Ronit Yitshaki, Fredric Kropp, and Benson Honig, “The Role of Compassion in Shaping Social Entrepreneurs’ Prosocial Opportunity Recognition”
The following works guided the thinking around the Accelerator Two competencies:
- Vanessa Andreotti, Hospicing Modernity
- David Bohm and Mark Edwards, Changing Consciousness
- Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
- Canada Council on Learning’s First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model, “Centring Indigenous Intellectual Traditions on Holistic Lifelong Learning”
- Alberta Education, Walking Together: First Nations, Metis and Inuit Perspectives in Curriculum
- Common Worlds Research Collective, “Learning to Become With the World: Education for Future Survival”
- Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life
- James Clear, Atomic Habits
- Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, The US Farm Bill: Corporate Power and Structural Racialization in the United States Food System
- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Interbeing,” in The Art of Living
- James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
- Bill McKibben, Falter
- Sharon Stein, “Reimagining Global Citizenship Education for a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) World”
- Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Journey of the Universe
- Meg Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be?