T-shaped people for addressing the global challenge of sustainability

Purpose – Poverty, hunger, inequalities, diseases, unsustainable use of resources, etc., in spite of advances of the last decades, still result unsolved worldwide issues. All relate to the challenges of sustainability and sustainable development that now call for urgent answers. Education is one of the key drivers of a really transformative change. To address this change, however, a profound re-thinking of education programs is required, as has emerged at the end of the UNESCO’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the scientific community of the Naples Forum on Service responds to this call. Design/Methodology/approach – By adopting a “3Pillars-Based” integrated perspective, key assumptions and findings from the three scientific communities of the Forum are identified to find foundational elements of a lifelong education process, targeted to address the multiple challenges of sustainability and sustainable development. Findings – Through the interpretative lens of the Viable Systems Approach, convergence between the three scientific proposals of Network and Systems Theory, Service-Dominant logic and Service Science, relevant to the building of a common framework for re-thinking education, are discussed. Findings indicate the skills with which decision makers must be endowed to face the challenges of transformative change toward sustainability and sustainable development. Boundary crossing and systems thinking capabilities are specifically identified as key skills to be developed. These findings suggest the opportunity to consider the “T-Shape” model as a general reference for re-thinking education methodologies and programs, as it implies an effective integration of soft and hard skills. A trans-disciplinary systems thinking based body of theoretical and practical knowledge is required as fostered by Sustainability Science. Education of T-shaped People may be a solution. Research implications - An integrated effort of scientific communities engaged in research that can contribute to the global call for a more sustainable and inclusive world, is essential. Practical implications – Trans-disciplinarity implies the involvement of people from the business and social real world in the education process, to test and put in practice advances by adopting real problem solving approach. Originality/value – This paper represents a call for engaging the Naples Forum on Service scientific and professional communities in worldwide collaboration to contribute to address the global challenge of a more sustainable and inclusive world by leveraging on education.