Explorative Learning and Transformative Acting as a New Leadership Methodology in Times of a Polycrisis: And Why the SDGs Can Provide a Productive Narrative

In an era marked by multiple crises and transformations, we face unprecedented complexity and uncertainty, driving a paradigm shift where traditional ideas, institutions, and relationships falter. This paper explores how orienting toward the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can foster productive orientations within research, teaching, business, and society, resisting destructive tendencies. Drawing from economics and business psychology and inspired by Erich Fromm’s assertion of the human need for orientation, the SDGs offer a framework addressing critical issues like global food security, climate crisis, and inequality. Through perspectives from scholars such as Fromm, Schumpeter, Shiller, and Wehling, this paper illustrates how explorative learning and transformative actions provide a constructive paradigm in disruptive times.