By : Ralf Sibande with Steve & Eugenie Banhegyi

Note: this article is written using the perspective of Zulu leadership and knowledge systems.

The western business leadership education model provides comprehensive and detailed information in myriad specialist fields but fails to emphasise a holistic and integrative approach to human development in the context of working life. This lack of a holistic approach causes a problematic discontinuity between the experience of home/community life and the world of work where the all-important ‘soft skills’ of interpersonal behaviour are rarely reflected upon.

Communities and their regions have an unprecedented opportunity to integrate higher levels of organization, process and tools to connect legacy assets residing in colleges, universities, and libraries to people and their ideas; to reinvigorate institutions, organizations and government; and to strengthen creativity, collaboration, and communication for innovation and enterprise in education, economic, and workforce development. This paper begins a discussion of the value collaborative innovation networks (COINS) offer to accelerate and strengthen innovation in Open Source Economic Development (OSED) in the Civic Space, and to explore the design of an improved model of I-Open Civic Forums, a process driven approach to build networks, community, and communications for enterprise collaboration.

LEAD Africa, supported by the Royal Danish Embassy and COP 15, has just released a new report “Leading the way: A role for regional institutions” around African leadership on climate change that can be downloaded at the LeadInAfrica.org Website