# Cultivating Systems Leadership: Translating Real‐World Practice Into Classroom Opportunities

## TL;DR

This paper shows how teaching systems leadership through real-world experiences helps students tackle complex problems in communities and global settings.

## Contribution

The paper introduces field notes from real-world experiences to demonstrate systems leadership in action for educational purposes.

## Key findings

- Systems leadership is effective in managing complex public and international challenges.
- Experiential learning improves students' ability to drive sustainable change in interdependent systems.
- Field notes from post-Katrina New Orleans and Peace Corps work illustrate practical systems leadership.

## Abstract

This article highlights the benefits of integrating systems leadership approaches into leadership education and pedagogy. Drawing on over 40 years of combined real‐world practice, the authors present “field notes” as “case‐like descriptions and analysis” from their experiences as full participants in community organizing in post‐Katrina New Orleans and global sustainable development with the Peace Corps in Mongolia and Haiti. The field notes demonstrate how an implicit systems leadership mindset was instrumental in achieving outcomes in complex public and international contexts. The article proposes that integrating systems leadership through experiential learning enhances students' abilities to drive sustainable change within complex systems by better preparing students for the intricate, interdependent systems they will encounter beyond the classroom.