Life is unpredictable and change is an iron law of life. Leadership is one of the processes human groups generate in response to change and one of the processes that creates change. But how can leadership be effective if people naturally tend to resist change and if things are changing so rapidly and so profoundly that it’s hard enough just trying to figure out what’s going on?
The frantic pace of change in our technologized, computerized world is one of the most difficult problems facing leaders in all sorts of groups and organizations. How can leaders help their groups solve problems if those problems keep changing from day to day?
Nine or ten generations ago, tradition was as strong a force as change, and people mostly grew up to be whatever their parents had been. Nowadays no generation faces the same problems or circumstances as their parents, and a generation gap seems built in to contemporary history even when the generations get along fairly well.
At the same time, all our social organizations were built to solve yesterday’s problems, not necessarily today’s or tomorrow’s. In our educational institutions, which are supposed to prepare leaders for the future, all we can really hope to teach most of the time are the lessons of the past. Nevertheless, education is still the key to leadership for the future.
Not necessarily just the kind of formal education that takes place in schools during youth, but the kind of education that continues throughout the life cycle. That kind of education is based on curiosity and recognition of problems needing innovative solutions. It’s also based on flexibility of character and a willingness to break old habits and look for new answers to new dilemmas.
When it comes to effective leadership, old dogs have got to keep learning new tricks, or their followers won’t keep following.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Train-the-Trainer Institute for Collaborative Leadership at Ripon College July 5-9, 2011
This week’s blog is a rather shameless promotion for an event sponsored by the Wisconsin Leadership Institute for teachers and youth leaders who want to learn how to facilitate our curriculum on collaborative leadership at the secondary-school level. It will happen on the Ripon College campus in Ripon, Wisconsin, from July 5 through July 9.
The purpose of this five-day Institute is to help facilitators and youth leaders understand the process for facilitating the Wisconsin Leadership Institute’s youth curriculum, as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership, by Laurie Frank, Carol Carlin, and Jack Christ. The Institute will prepare facilitators to offer workshops and programs to train others to use the curriculum. This Institute will be valuable for teachers, youth workers, camp counselors, and those who train people in youth development work. An understanding of adventure education, group facilitation, presentation, and processing of activities is desired.
Facilitators and youth leaders who participate in the Institute will:
· Develop an understanding of the underlying assumptions and concepts of collaborative leadership as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership.
· Become familiar with the scope and sequence of the curriculum.
· Practice the experiential process as outlined in the curriculum.
· Share information with colleagues about collaborative leadership and facilitation techniques.
· Leave with an ability to provide workshops to those who are interested in developing collaborative leadership skills, values, and habits within youth groups and organizations.
To achieve these goals, participants will engage in the process, reflect upon their experience, and dialogue with each other to gain meaning and understanding. Participants will create their own personal action plan for applying the lessons of the Institute and sharing them with others. Completion of the workshop will entitle facilitators to conduct workshops with those who are interested in using the curriculum to its fullest extent. Graduate credits will be available for completion of the Institute.
Overview of the Agenda
Day 1: Introductions, orientation to the history and structure of the curriculum; foundational beliefs; collaborative leadership tasks.
Day 2: What is leadership?
Day 3: What is collaborative leadership?
Day 4: Participant presentations and feedback.
Day 5: Action planning and closing.
For questions about the Leading Together Institute, please call Laurie Frank
at (608) 251-2234 or email her at LSFrank@mac.com
To register for the Institute, please contact Dr. Jack Christ at Christj@ripon.edu
The $480 program fee includes room, board, and meals for the duration of the event. Three graduate credits are available through Viterbo University for an additional cost.
The purpose of this five-day Institute is to help facilitators and youth leaders understand the process for facilitating the Wisconsin Leadership Institute’s youth curriculum, as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership, by Laurie Frank, Carol Carlin, and Jack Christ. The Institute will prepare facilitators to offer workshops and programs to train others to use the curriculum. This Institute will be valuable for teachers, youth workers, camp counselors, and those who train people in youth development work. An understanding of adventure education, group facilitation, presentation, and processing of activities is desired.
Facilitators and youth leaders who participate in the Institute will:
· Develop an understanding of the underlying assumptions and concepts of collaborative leadership as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership.
· Become familiar with the scope and sequence of the curriculum.
· Practice the experiential process as outlined in the curriculum.
· Share information with colleagues about collaborative leadership and facilitation techniques.
· Leave with an ability to provide workshops to those who are interested in developing collaborative leadership skills, values, and habits within youth groups and organizations.
To achieve these goals, participants will engage in the process, reflect upon their experience, and dialogue with each other to gain meaning and understanding. Participants will create their own personal action plan for applying the lessons of the Institute and sharing them with others. Completion of the workshop will entitle facilitators to conduct workshops with those who are interested in using the curriculum to its fullest extent. Graduate credits will be available for completion of the Institute.
Overview of the Agenda
Day 1: Introductions, orientation to the history and structure of the curriculum; foundational beliefs; collaborative leadership tasks.
Day 2: What is leadership?
Day 3: What is collaborative leadership?
Day 4: Participant presentations and feedback.
Day 5: Action planning and closing.
For questions about the Leading Together Institute, please call Laurie Frank
at (608) 251-2234 or email her at LSFrank@mac.com
To register for the Institute, please contact Dr. Jack Christ at Christj@ripon.edu
The $480 program fee includes room, board, and meals for the duration of the event. Three graduate credits are available through Viterbo University for an additional cost.
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