Excellence and competence in a more mature form of social interaction need man in his undivided completeness and uniqueness, as well as in his relationships and communication skills. The development and promotion of teamwork is not so much an organizational task, but rather presents itself as a challenge for the process of social maturity. Team success is only possible as an expression of renewed awareness of the value and dignity of man on the one hand, and of the significance of social development on the other.  Even though team coaching is no easy procedure to learn, since it includes the development of individual personality as well as an interdependent culture of community, there is no way around it.

Guiding models are required for collective learning and co-creative opinion forming from childhood on, such as the use of family councils, the introduction of team-oriented teaching at schools or the creation of effective high-performance teams in organizations of all kind. The success recipe for the future cannot lie in first teaching people to be lone fighters, only to expect them to change into team players afterwards. Systemic thinking, social learning, teamwork and personal integrity are becoming more and more evident as key factors in a new stage of development of human society, which shows all the signs of integrative maturity.

This book is intended to serve as a basis to put into practice with a number of illustrative examples, graphics and checklists for self-learning as well as for everyone who wants to follow the path to a future team competency and be prepared for the demands of an open Learning Community.

With the systemic approach, it is possible to explain previously only sensed yet misunderstood undesirable developments and to align previously unconnected matters. This system model also provides remarkable insights into social change or failing societies, as well as into challenges such as business mergers or patchwork families.

For Leaders, this book gives hints how to identify, mend, or ideally avoid deficits in their area of responsibility, when to apply which leadership style, how important the systemic maturity evolution of staff can be for the organizational structure of a company, or how management can change from the carrot principle of extrinsic reward models and support their employees through meaning and intrinsic motivation. Leadership is clearly distinguished from the function of management. Its comprehensive significance for the preservation of the system is emphasised from a systemic point of view.  Helpful advice is also given to parents who wish to raise their children so that they don’t fall into passive consumerism, but take responsibility as active promoters of a desirable society.

With the same extent, the systemic approach is transferred into practice, our perception of the surrounding reality will increase. When we realise that life doesn’t go on straight and linear according to simple links of cause and effect, our view of what is essential will change. Life experiences, misfortunes, successes and setbacks reveal, often only from a higher perspective or in retrospective, sense-giving patterns or order structures in which coincidences or specific events can be connected and explained.

The more we get aware of the rules and inner connections of systemic realities, the more self-efficacy and culture-creating power can contribute to the advancement of the community.

It takes the power of comprehensive thinking to release the transformative energy that is capable of breaking up frozen forms and initiating a process of change and the crystallization of new system structures. It is a matter of making a joint effort to learn how to integrate the diversity of nations, cultures, religions and economic systems, in the course of an organic transformation process, into a functional wholeness. At the heart of this process of dynamic change is nothing less than humanity in its entirety. No future-oriented development can neglect systemic thinking and action. It is the gift of our era.