Traditional, hierarchical views of leadership have been under development and stress, increased complexities of the contemporary systems requires a process orientation. Leadership theory must transition to new perspectives that account for the complex adaptive needs of organizations. We advocate that leadership (as opposed to leaders) can be seen as a complex dynamic process that emerges through involved people and ideas. We introduce the concepts of complexity, situation and adaptive leadership. We show how these dynamics can be placed in practice through the introduction of the Rotterdam Central District case study; through which important insights about the nature of leadership and its outcomes in organizational fields are expressed.

Understanding Public Leadership styles in realizing Iconic urban Projects. Successful realization of an iconic project involves the manipulation, often over decades, of a complex web of numerous interrelated physical and social variables. this research set out to study the leadership styles that public development authorities adopt in the process from initiation to realization of iconic urban projects. Based on an indepth case study of three iconic projects (Rotterdam Central District; Bilbao Abandoibarra; and Paris rive Gauche), the presenter will share theories concerning leadership styles of urban planners and public leaders.

What the public and private roles should be is one of the main issues in contem-porary urban development. This paper builds upon findings from international-oriented Master and PhD studies at the TU Delft. It advocates for adaptive public leadership on a strategic level, and calls for committed private leadership on a tactical level. We argue that – when applied with conscious – both public and pri-vate leadership hold great potential to sustainable collaboration in Dutch urban development. 

Today, I am pleased to announce that I have graduated from the Delft University of Technology. My Masters thesis was on strategic planning, focusing on the role of (semi)public development authorities in realising strategic projects. I investigated the way public authorities can translate a vision into outcomes through adaptive leadership. I enclose the abstract of my study to this email.

What inspired, motivates and sometimes frightens me is the enormous challenge of my generation in urbanizing over 1.3 billion people in the next 40 years. I strongly believe in the power of strategic planning as an economic engine, and as a means to empower society. The global financial crisis has amplified the need for collaboration; aligning public interests and involving market and civic stakeholders at an early stage. Specialised knowledge (and academia) has a lot to offer in the complex practice of urban development, particularly in matching local conditions such as politics, economics, culture, legal frameworks and environment.