From head to heart and back again : cognitive and emotional dimensions of sensemaking among sustainability leaders

Abstract

As the horizon of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development draws closer, interconnected ecological and social crises press with increasing urgency for transformations that must take root not only in the future, but in the here and now. Yet, despite decades of sustainability discourse and development, organizational responses continue to reproduce business-as-usual patterns that fall short of the depth and pace required. At the center of this tension, and alternatively inertia, are sustainability leaders: individuals tasked with advancing transformative and regenerative agendas while working within systems that shape, and often limit, how sustainability is understood, enacted, and imagined.

This dissertation turns inward to explore the sensemaking processes that guide sustainability leaders’ decisions and actions. Drawing on qualitative inquiry, including podcast interviews, mind mapping, autobiographical reflection, and collective reflective research, the dissertation spans a range of organizational and international contexts to explore how sustainability leaders orient themselves cognitively and emotionally as they navigate the demands of leading in times marked by complexity and crisis.

The findings bring into view both the limitations and the possibilities of current sensemaking practices. Prevailing cognitive structures often anchor sustainability efforts in familiar trajectories, while certain cognitive frame characteristics can open space for regenerative forms of development. At the same time, emotionally charged experiences emerge as significant resources in sensemaking, shaping how leaders interpret situations and, at times, reframing their understanding in ways that allow new cognitive orientations to take form.

By bringing these strands together, connecting the head with the heart, this dissertation advances a more nuanced account of sensemaking processes among sustainability leaders. It suggests that attention to the head alone is insufficient. Sustainability transformations call equally for the heart, asking leaders not only to think their way through sustainable development, but also to notice and engage with their emotional cues along the way. It is within this interplay that more transformative directions for sustainability can emerge, shaping both present and future.