Dr Lance Newey

Dr Newey has pioneered a wellbeing approach to business and society. This framework assists leaders to integrate eight components of wellbeing: economic, environmental, social, cultural, physical, psychological, spiritual and material. Contemporary leadership in both business and society is seen to have to wrestle with competing tensions between these eight components. Dr Newey uses polarity leveraging as a way to assist leaders to create value across these eight components thus integrating businesses and societies to maximise wellbeing for their stakeholders. This integrated wellbeing model has been developed through a rigorous empirical research agenda and includes a number of conceptual papers laying out the core ideas, a measurement paper which specialises in how to measure wellbeing as well as field research. The field research has consisted of a large international study of the wellbeing beliefs and practices of leaders across Alaska, India and Norway as well as in-depth on-the-ground applied research with the City of Anchorage, Alaska. Included within the research is the study of how businesses and societies can successfully transition to wellbeing frameworks. Also included is a specialisation in circumstances of gridlock in societies where decision-making is characterized by polarization and lack of community investment. The research is currently being translated into a number of products including wellbeing frameworks for business and society as well as a wellbeing leadership development program for primary and secondary schools.

A passionate teacher, Dr Newey has won numerous internal University Teaching Awards as well as a prestigious National Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. These awards were earned based on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Social Entrepreneurship. Dr Newey innovated deep experiential learning experiences for students who are challenged to develop and execute with real stakeholders a social entrepreneurship model around a social issue of their choosing. These projects have addressed and made important contributions to issues including mental health, environmental sustainability, children with severe disabilities, homelessness, human trafficking and child services for victims of domestic violence.

In 2019, Dr Newey will launch his new course 'Entrepreneurial Leadership' which utilises insights from his groundbreaking research to develop a generation of leader able to deal with complex challenges as well as undertake ongoing personal development.