Sustainable development is about fundamentally changing our ways of working, and our ways of working together. Change in goals and practices, in the very paradigm of one’s aims to realise the desired change via a multi-stakeholder approach; bringing together people from the worlds of business, policy, science, and societal organisations. Turning perceived trade-offs into complements In our networked society there is great potential for unlikely allies to co-develop and co-create new values by connecting values held by different stakeholders. Incorporating different societal and ecological values into the primary process of a business results in a ‘3P value proposition’ which, in return, adds value to the People, Planet and Profit dimensions of society. Entrepreneurs who successfully manage to connect a business case opportunity to a societal and environmental challenge have a ‘license to grow’. At a deeper level, this process of value co-creation evokes system-adaption: a change of deeply rooted patterns of action and thought, and with it the corrosion of structures that we have built around these patterns. The Connected Value Development approach This book provides lessons learned by the next generation of professionals, from entrepreneurs to managers and policymakers to researchers, and people in every other function in between. It is based on experiences drawn from the Dutch innovation program TransForum and is combined with scientific research on interactive learning in action by the Athena institute at VU University Amsterdam. Together, these experiences and insights shape the approach of Connected Value Development. Its practical applicability will give readers a head start when embarking on a process of profound change.

Hans Jöhr, Corporate Head of Agriculture, Nestlé, Switzerland.

Adam Kahane, Reos Partners and University of Oxford. Author of Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities and Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change.