BeWeDō®: A dynamic approach to leadership development for co-creation

Abstract

One of the main challenges in the contemporary era is shifting beyond collaborative thinking to more relational ways of engaging co-operatively with each other. This interdisciplinary research focused on investigating how the movement practices of the Japanese martial art Aikidō facilitate leadership development and a relational perspective for co-creation. It synthesizes diverse literatures focussed on leadership development, aikidoka, and co-creative modes of practice as processes ‘in action’. These are explored in relation to collective creativity and the context of co-creation to contribute to leadership studies. The Aikidō principle of aiki was used as a theoretical framework where experiential knowing – anchored in relational processes learnt in a dōjō – focused on engaging the body and its experiences as a participatory way of knowing. This ethnography combined autoethnography, visual ethnography and 14 semi-structured interviews to identify four concepts which were synthesized into the BeWeDō® conceptual framework – a unique co-creation experience beyond the dōjō. BeWeDō® offers valuable insights into the relational dynamics of leadership as a process for structuring leadership development for co-creation.