Achievement: By focusing on enabling real leadership as part of an Appreciative Inquiry process we achieved one of the Government of Aruba’s key aspirations: to have a sustainable planning system in Aruba, and the leadership to ensure that real accountability for the future of Aruba is taken by people from all communities and stakeholder groups enabling them to adapt to an uncertain world environment. The Challenge: The challenge was to engage as many of the island’s stakeholder groups and individual citizens as possible in developing awareness of sustainable development and social responsibility in order to develop an integrated and actionable strategic plan and an ongoing process to implement and sustain the strategy. As part of a programme to improve the quality of governance within Aruba the process also needed to change the relationship between government and governed with people taking more accountability for their own lives and future generations. Our Approach: We assembled a team of experienced specialists in large-scale change leadership & culture change, leadership coaching, mass participation and strategic scenario planning to create a unique approach for the people of Aruba. This international team, drawn from the UK, USA, The Netherlands and Indonesia, was carefully selected to complement the client’s leadership team. Our approach focused on building capability within the client team, and working with them to design and lead a series of workshops and events engaging government departments, parliament, private sector organizations, NGOs, and the people of Aruba including students studying abroad in Holland and the USA. Engagement with a wide cross section of Aruban society was achieved through engagement of key stakeholders, mass participation events, press coverage, advertising and a dedicated social networking website. Workshops with political and community leaders built broad political and social sponsorship of the planning process and led to the launch of a number of independent commissions building commitment to key aspects of the plan. Over half of the population participated in the planning process in some way (more than 60,000 people involved). The participatory process has continued through change of government. Testimonials: “A new and different approach for us, it has had a positive impact on the participatory process and on all those involved. I have learned a lot from this project.” Maria Dijkhoff-Pita – Director, Department of Economic Affairs, Commerce and Industry, Government of Aruba (DEZHI) “This was an event whereby a lot of people gave their utmost. This is one of the results that Nos Aruba 2025 wants to reach: cooperation, dialogue and communication among stakeholders.” Chantal Ecury – core team member speaking after the mass participation event to integrate the Design phase. This work was recognised by the award of “Finalist” in the Institute of Business Consulting’s “Best International Project Award” 2009.