Thought leadership boosts multi-stakeholder collaboration for sustainability

To drive urgent sustainability transformations in business and society, we need to be able to influence people’s world views, mindsets and behaviours strategically and in collaboration with multiple stakeholder groups. Higher education institutions should therefore actively foster skills and competences in thought leadership and strategic communication across disciplines, sectors, and cultures.

In September 2025, an EU-funded RDI project on global thought leadership (SHUTTLE) organised an in-person staff training event at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. In a series of workshops, some 20 university teachers and researchers from Finland, Portugal, Poland, and Czechia tested and co-developed educational resources aimed at fostering leadership skills for the future.

The Haaga-Helia project team was responsible for facilitating a workshop on sustainable leadership, thought leadership, transdisciplinary learning, and shared value creation. The aim was to train project partners to plan how to inspire, engage and lead stakeholders from different backgrounds to join strategic collaboration projects and boost sustainability transformation.

Thought leadership as a tool for transdisciplinary learning

In sustainability science, transdisciplinary research, learning and collaboration have been seen as a viable way for stakeholders to collaborate with impact. Barth et al. (2023) define transdisciplinary research and learning as ‘a knowledge co-production process in which a variety of actors from science and other areas of society (e.g. government and practitioners) interact in mutual-learning processes to develop, test, and implement solutions to real-world problems that foster transformative change’.

Often the most pressing stakeholder needs and interests across sectors and cultures focus on finding ways to actively challenge the status quo (Welbeck et al. 2024) and learn out of unsustainable behaviours. Addressing these needs requires the design of open mutual-learning spaces and real-world environments where it is possible to co-develop transdisciplinary learning for sustainability on individual, collaborative, and societal and global levels (Barth et al. 2023).

The practice of ‘unlearning’ old habits and envisioning and co-creating innovative solutions together with multiple and diverse stakeholder groups can be supported by training and practicing skills and competences of thought leadership. Thought leadership has for long been discussed and developed in connection with digital marketing and public relations because of its focus on inclusive communication, strategic engagement, and trust building between stakeholders with the purpose of influencing and challenging stakeholder mindsets, world views, and ultimately behaviours (Guerreiro, Sebastiao & Pereira 2023; Bourne 2015).

In the context of management and leadership, thought leadership is often linked with the creation of value and competitive advantages (Guerreiro et al. 2023; Welbeck et al. 2024). According to Guerreiro et al. (2023) , regardless of the disciplinary context, communication is regarded as a core characteristic of thought leadership: ‘organisations need competent and influential leaders, who can develop and communicate a shared vision, anticipating the future and creating unity, and therefore, require individuals who are simultaneously strategic thinkers and communicators, capable of dealing with uncertain and ambiguous environments’.

In the same vein, fostering visionary thought leadership in SMEs aims at long-term relationship building to create an inclusive organisational culture that empowers and invites people to contribute ideas, negotiate values, and commit to shared interests and goals. In the best-case scenario, thought leadership practices of SME managers can help build a collaborative and continuous learning environment supporting critical self-awareness, emotional intelligence, open stakeholder dialogues, and strong relationships capable of driving innovation and fostering trust and loyalty among stakeholders. (Welbeck et al. 2024.)

Three case examples of thought leadership and transdisciplinary learning

Applying the theoretical insights above, the workshop by Haaga-Helia set out to engage the other SHUTTLE project partners in planning stakeholder collaborations for sustainability relevant to their respective educational environments. The partners came up with three case examples requiring thought leadership and transdisciplinary collaboration to boost forward-looking sustainability initiatives.

Case 1: Driving sustainability transformation on a university level

The project group of the University of Applied Sciences in Nysa, Poland, included people from both administrative and teaching roles. The challenge that the group decided to focus on was organisational and cross-disciplinary: engaging staff and students across borders in collaborative efforts to improve the energy efficiency of the campus. Developing practices of thought leadership and transdisciplinary learning was needed to find ways to balance sustainability goals with maintaining comfort and functionality on campus.

Incentive-based approaches, such as rewards for energy-saving behaviors, were regarded as more effective than awareness campaigns alone in motivating staff and students. The workshop participants shared examples of successful energy-saving practices and existing initiatives, such as simple operational changes (e.g. turning off devices, adjusting temperatures) and ‘sleep mode’ days when entire buildings are closed to save energy.

The group concluded that concrete incentives are easier to communicate and can be more effective than abstract appeals to awareness. Innovative rewards and incentives that inspire all stakeholder groups can help achieve significant behavior changes that make a real difference in practice. The work has already been going on for three years, and continued efforts of thought leadership and strategic communication are needed to keep the purpose-driven stakeholder collaboration going – and growing.

Case 2: Developing the olive oil business in Portugal

In their workshop discussion, project participants from the Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco (IPCB), Portugal, focused on the sustainability of olive oil production, which for them is a key regional industry.

One of the challenges that require multi-stakeholder collaboration and transdisciplinary learning to develop the industry is balancing profitability with environmentally friendly practices. The IPCB participants emphasised that climate-friendly methods must also be economically viable to be adopted widely, which is why innovative practices and new solutions to create shared value are needed.

The multi-stakeholder collaboration required here is cross-disciplinary, which means that multiple disciplines from several higher education institutions active in the region could join forces to open new avenues of research to explore the challenge. The challenge is also cross-sectoral, because researchers, business practitioners, and policymakers need to be able to negotiate solutions that are attractive to companies, whilst also complying with environmental policies and regulations.

Finally, the universities in the region could act as thought leaders and invite stakeholders in transdisciplinary research, learning, and collaboration. They could focus on building bridges between different stakeholder groups, also engaging students across disciplines to participate in envisioning more sustainable futures for local people, businesses, and communities.

Case 3: Training soft skills across SSH and STEM

The participants from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Czechia, focused on the growing importance of soft skills in the age of AI and digitalisation. A challenge they identified was the lack of emphasis on developing soft skills in both higher education and the labor market. The group felt that co-planning and joint discussion of soft skills development with partners across social sciences and humanities disciplines (SSH), science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, university decision-makers, and industry partners would be needed to increase mutual understanding and to create shared value.

The thought leadership challenge in this case had to do with creating a shared vision and a sense of unity between representatives from different fields and sectors. The strategic communication aim would be to convince all parties that it is not a question of confrontation between SSH and STEM skills. Instead, educators and industry partners share a unified goal to make sure that students graduate with the skills and competences required by working life and needed to build a sustainable future.

The first concrete step of stakeholder collaboration and trust building could be to involve university decision-makers and lecturers across disciplines in inclusive dialogue and value-based discussions about future skills needs and opportunities of transdisciplinary learning. The group came up with the idea of establishing a Pedagogical Club whose purpose would be to bring together staff members interested in soft skills development. An integrated platform for student involvement and feedback was also proposed. As a step further, best practices of transdisciplinary learning and creating synergy between hard and soft skills development can be disseminated across cultural borders through active project collaboration with international university partners and their stakeholder networks.

Key insights and next steps

Thought leadership can be seen as a matter of individual characteristics of leaders but also as an organisational and societal competence to engage diverse stakeholders in collaboration to drive transformation and change. The SHUTTLE project approaches thought leadership challenges on individual, organisational, collaborative, and societal and global levels, with special focus on leading inclusive and value-based stakeholder collaborations and mutual learning in digital environments.

Through discussing their case examples requiring competences of thought leadership and transdisciplinary learning, the SHUTTLE project partners were able to reflect on the actual needs, challenges and possibilities of driving change in their own educational environments. Ultimately, the project aims to innovate forms and educational materials of thought leadership that help disseminate knowledge and best practices from specific collaborative initiatives to wider societal and global contexts.

According to feedback from the workshop facilitated by Haaga-Helia, SHUTTLE participants learned that value discussions between stakeholder groups are an important part of trust building. They argued that stakeholder discussions should be inclusive, open, and adaptable to diverse cultural and institutional contexts. Partners also emphasised that cultural diversity and societal polarisation must be duly acknowledged and addressed in value-based conversations.

All in all, participants felt that education systems should evolve to support skills for collaborative learning, critical thinking, and global citizenship to boost transdisciplinary learning. This is why it is important to create inspirational digital spaces and communities of practice that facilitate multi-stakeholder collaboration strategically and for the long term.

Going forward, the SHUTTLE project partners will continue to develop Open Educational Resources (OERs) integrating the insights and strategies discussed. The goal is to foster ongoing dialogue, transdisciplinary learning, and meaningful stakeholder engagement to boost sustainable development and shared value creation in digital learning communities.

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