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Abstract
Leadership development is often championed as a priority across multiple sectors, including private industry, government organizations, nonprofits, and academia. Leadership programming is one strategy used to equip individuals and organizations for a variety of challenges and address the needs of specific groups (e.g., emerging, women, and minority leaders), yet there remains scant evidence that leadership programs create change beyond the individual level. This action research (AR) study examined alumnae of a women’s leadership development program (WLDP) as they attempted to create a deliberately developmental system to address challenges related to sustaining leadership development and stimulating growth at both individual and collective levels. The team of action researchers at Grant University, a pseudonym for a large research university in the Southeast, used collaborative developmental action inquiry (CDAI) to develop the skills adaptive leaders need to create spaces for inquiry and growth across systems within a large bureaucratic institution. The team desired to understand one fundamental research question: What is learned at individual, group, and system levels that advances the theory and practice of building deliberately developmental systems within the context of a large research university?The study’s findings showed desire for continued networking and connection served as effective entry points for developmental work. At a collective level, commitment played an important role in creating a holding environment to grow adaptive leadership capacity, and developmental practices provided necessary structure for developing a shared language focused on learning and growth. At the system level, CDAI enabled the AR team to stretch beyond a task orientation and develop a new way of learning and creating together. Finally, creating a deliberately developmental system within a larger institution of higher education provided mutual benefits for the group and host institution. The study demonstrated that using CDAI methodology and applying the deliberately developmental organization (DDO) framework developed by Kegan et al. (2016) contributed to the creation of a developmental system and learning at individual, group, and system levels. For organizations to initiate and sustain change at the collective and system levels, resources should be dedicated to support program alumnae in addition to new participants.