Navigating the Sea of Complexity: Leadership in the 21st Century.

Ken Otter, Director of Leadership Studies, Saint Mary’s College of California

July 16, 2009

The world has changed, is changing, and will change...

“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more” ~Dorothy in the” Wizard of OZ”

We are called to respond

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Like the new world explorers of Old Europe, we are navigating uncharted waters

We need to update our maps

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Or may be it is more like this…

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We need not only new maps, but multiple maps

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Worldview Modern--simple Modern-complex Post-modern Integral

Leader Orientation

Autocratic/

Authoritarian

Authority--based

Managerial/

Administrative

Facilitative/

Enabling

Influenced based

Participatory/

Collaborative

Leadership

Perspective

Individual Individual Relational Intrinsic to social processes

Locus of Authority/Power

In the person In position, policies and procedures

Shared Distributed & Emergent

Environment Stable Stable with slow change Complex and Dynamic Interdependent

Key Values Safety/Security

Self-interest/Control

Obedience/Duty

Achievement/Success

Efficiency/Planning

Integration/Wholeness

Adaptability/Flexibility

Empathy/Presence

Truth/Wisdom

Global Justice/

Sustainability

Metaphor Parent/ruler Machine Organism Gaia

Leadership along a Continuum of Complexity

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21st Century Leadership is full spectrum leadership

Each phase or world-view includes and transcends the previous

By educating in the more complex, people can flex to the less complex

The capacities and competencies in leadership have both inner and outer orientations

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Seven threads of our program

1. Learning community2. Multiple ways of knowing3. Values development4. Systems thinking5. Cross-cultural capacity6. Transformative Learning7. Participatory learning and inquiry

Learning Community: Key Premises

Develops capacities and skills from right side of the continuum, e.g. emotional and social intelligence

Creates necessary conditions for individual and group learning

Individual and group development are seen as mutually enhancing

Offers a learning laboratory and a practice field

Provides a social analogue for real world activity, and enhanced transfer of learning

Individual Group

•Unique initiative, skills, and gifts offered;•Value priorities registered;•Preferences and perspectives shared;•Goals & expectations identified.

•Basic group infrastructure forms;•Shared purpose, agreements established;•Basic interaction patterns emerging;•Membership decided;•Foundational trust and safety present;•Coordination taking place; •Diversity acknowledged;•Multiple perspectives evident•Sense of connection emerging.

Individual Group

•New understanding of self—gifts, strengths and limitations;•Increased openness & vulnerability;•Revised value priorities;•Wider frame of reference achieved;•New intrapersonal and interpersonal capacities developed

•Increased collaboration;•Purpose redefined;•Roles are fluid; •Varied perspectives are encouraged;•Shared learning occurs;•Conflict redefined as resource;•Unexpected meanings, decisions, results get made.

“The cohort learning provided a forum for open and honest dialogue… (The) solid trust, built over time, allowed for the freedom of new ideas and the creation of openness to ideas which were not present at the beginning of the program…. They changed because of openness to new individuals, dialog and the deeper quest for understanding.”

C.V. Private Sector, Director

“Being a part of the learning community allowed me to have meaningful exchanges…further broadened my worldview…(through )being open and honest,…seeking to understand, and appreciatively inquiring. “

TL—Public Sector, Director

“The relationships that are formed…allowed me a freedom of exploration through the material that aided my learning. Having others, whose opinions I valued, there to vet my thoughts and challenge me, served to create emergent thought, new ideas and definitely facilitated my learning.”

M.F.--Private Sector, CEO

“Nowhere in my academic experiences have I thought more deeply about how I hold myself and my awareness of others, especially those from other cultures. I clearly believe that my social consciousness has risen greatly, along with my awareness and sensitivity of cross-cultural interaction…that has translated to both a greater understanding and sensitivity that has afforded me more in-depth growth as a person and as a professional.”

B.L.—Private Sector, VP

The 7 C’s of Developing Learning Community

Care Communication

Contact

Coordination

Community IntelligenceCommunity Intelligence

Creativit

y Connection

Collaboration

The word “intelligence” is derived from the Latin word “intellegere”

(legere meaning gather or bring together, and inter meaning between or within)

The capacities of discerning the world brought before us, toward what is meaningful

Leadership education through the development of learning community is a strategy for developing multiple ways of knowing and intelligences.

COMMUNITY INTELLIGENCECOMMUNITY INTELLIGENCE

SOCIAL

EMOTIONAL

KINES

THET

ICANALYTIC

PRACT

ICAL

AESTHETIC

The new global reality

requires new maps and models of leadership,

which require new

and different learning goals and outcomes in leadership education,

which also require innovative designs for learning.

The new global reality requires new maps and models of leadership, which require new and different learning goals and outcomes in leadership education, which also require innovative designs for learning.

Thank you!