HLD 291

HDL 291-01: LEADING ADAPTIVELY IN A COMPLEX WORLD
FALL 2019

Instructors:
Joshua Meyer   [email protected]

Stephanie Lindsay  [email protected]

Schedule:
Tuesday/Thursday       3:10-4:25               TBD Reid Hall

Office Hours:              TBD                           242 Reid Hall

Course Overview:
Leading Adaptively in a Complex World is based on the concept that leadership is an action, something one exercises, rather than a position of authority. Based on this perspective, leadership is exercised to address challenging situations (described as problematic realities). Thus, individuals who exercise leadership need to be adaptive in the actions they take, which are based on the specific variables associated with each unique problematic reality.

Catalog Description:
This course will provide a foundational overview of the methods used to practice adaptive leadership through diagnosis and intervention within leadership-based problematic realities to positively effect change. Key learnings will emphasize diagnosing the causes of problematic realities and formulating strategic interventions to address those problems. This will be accomplished by developing a diagnostic skillset to critically examine problematic realities and analyze those situations from individualistic, organizational and global perspectives. Students will then use that understanding to strategically evaluate ways to intervene within those systems relative to their own and their constituents’ roles. Students will enact their learnings through oral and written exercises designed to intervene within hypothetical problematic realities in order to effect positive change, thus demonstrating their conceptual understanding of adaptive leadership.

Learning Outcomes:
Students will develop a conceptual understanding of adaptive leadership theory by learning how to enact critical inquiry to diagnose the factors involved in leadership-based problematic realities. Additionally, students will engage in oral and written communication exercises to effect change related to those problematic realities.  After completing this course, students will have gained a foundational understanding of adaptive leadership theory. This will be demonstrated by students developing the following: 

• Critical thinking skills to accurately identify and diagnose leadership-based problems
• Intrapersonal reflexivity to authentically identify own role and affective triggers within dynamic group systems
• Interpersonal awareness to accurately identify the roles and behaviors of group members
• Problem solving skills to beneficially intervene within leadership-based problems
• Oral and written communication skills demonstrated by the formal presentation of a leadership failure as well as a carefully designed and holistically implemented intervention into a leadership-based problem.

Performance Standards:
The performance tasks students will be able to complete to demonstrate successful understanding and implementation of course material include:

• Problem Diagnosis Paper: Students will analyze, interpret, and explain the interrelated variables resulting in a specific problematic reality
• Weekly Reflection Journal: Students will discuss their own ongoing intrapersonal experience of participating and engaging in the experiential structure of this class
• Leadership Failure Poster Presentation: Each student will apply leadership theory and perspective taking to explicate the variables associated with a failed intervention
• Intervention Presentation: Small groups will apply the entire adaptive leadership model to a complex problem, identifying interventions and solutions in a final presentation
• No stakes quizzes will be given regularly to monitor overall conceptual understanding

Point Breakdown:

• Attendance and Participation: 100
• Problem Diagnosis Paper:   50
• Leadership Failure Presentation:   75
• Final Leadership Intervention: 125
• Weekly Reflection Journal: 150
• TOTAL POINTS 500

How You Will Be Graded:
Attendance and Participation (100 points)
Attendance is mandatory. Students are afforded one absence without penalty; all other absences will be subjected to instructor discretion based on the Student Code of Conduct. Missing more than one class may result in receiving fewer attendance and participation points.

Since class discussion draws its strength from active, engaged participation, all students are expected to be prepared, present, engaged, and actively participating in every class. Read all assigned material prior to class.

Late arrival (tardiness) or early departure may be considered a missed class. Missed class results in reduced Attendance and Participation points and count toward cumulative absences.

Problem Diagnosis Paper (50 points)
Each student will critically examine a leadership-based problematic reality of their choosing by diagnosing the nature of the problem. Students will identify key stakeholders, assumptions, loyalties, allegiances, and underlying values. Papers should be ~5 pages in length and formatted to APA 6^th ed. standards.

Leadership Failure Poster Presentation (75 points)
Each student will develop and present a personal leadership failure in the form of a poster presentation (gallery) based on a previous unsuccessful attempt to exercise leadership. The purpose of this assignment is to train students to critically examine and reflect upon their actions and develop the capacity to constructively analyze the factors behind why their attempt to exercise leadership failed. Students will detail and diagram the factors associated with the leadership failure in a professional poster, which will be presented in a “gallery” format akin to a conference poster presentation.

Intervention Presentation (125 points)
The leadership Intervention Presentation will serve as the Final Exam, synthesizing students’ key learnings related to Leading Adaptively in a Complex World. Students will work in small groups to develop and present a 15-minute diagnostic analyses and action plan structured to intervene within a problematic reality of their choosing. Additionally, students will submit an outline depicting their application of diagnostic and leadership-intervention strategies, using models of adaptive leadership to support their propositions.

Weekly Reflection Journal (150 points)
Students are expected to complete weekly reflection journals through Brightspace Discussion Threads. This format will enable to students to: (a) generate original postings related to their ongoing learnings; (b) observe their peers’ key learnings; and (c) comment upon (i.e., respond to) one another’s original posts. Original posts discussion thread prompts will be provided ten times throughout the semester. Students’ reflections should ~500-long and demonstrate reflection and reflexivity to thematic course concepts. Additionally, students are expected respond substantively to the original posts of at least two other students for each of the ten discussion threads.

Required Text

• Heifetz, R., Grashow A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

• Additional readings will be provided by the instructor via Brightspace by D2L

Students are expected to have carefully read each required chapter for the day to which it is assigned and come to class prepared to discuss the information presented therein.

Key Topics

• Diagnosis – Identifying the Problem
  • Relationship between Problematic Reality and Purpose
  • Stakeholders
  • Perspective: Balcony versus Dancefloor
• Individual Behavioral Science
  • Emotionality & Heartstrings
  • Self-Understanding (Reflexivity, Self-Awareness, & Self-Assessment)
  • Self versus Role
• Organizations and Social Systems
  • Experiential Learning T-Groups (training groups)
  • Allies & Confidants
  • Constituents & Stakeholders
  • Authority
• Global Perspective
  • Social Inertia
  • Resistance to Change, Pushback, & Assassination
  • Inspiration & Propaganda
• Intervention
  • Intervention = Diagnosis + Strategic Action
  • Failure
  • Reengagement

Weekly Calendar: Topics and Assignments