HLD 491

Resilience in Leadership Syllabus
Fall UC 491-003
CRN# 25433

Facilitator:   Lorca Smetana, MA I.S.
Office Hours & Location: TH 10:00-10:45     Reid Hall Rm. 242
Email: [email protected]

Class Time & Location: TR 10:50-12:05     Reid Hall Rm. 425
Course Credits: 3

Course Description:
Resilience design is where efficiency meets strength meets delight.  Resilience thinking is galvanizing scientists, governments, and social innovators.  Resilience theory asks how to support people and design systems that know how to recover, persist and even to thrive in the face of change. In the last century, we sought to limit the tides of change in resource availability, population and climate.  University students today were born into a world where many of these drawn lines were already surpassed.  The question today becomes not how to mitigate but rather how to build a better boat while we are already at sea.  Those who can do this are leaders.

Designed to show how this new concept of resilience is a powerful lens through which we can assess major issues afresh, it will also develop each student’s grasp of personal resilience as a leader. Today, “normative” breakdowns in mental and emotional health adversely affect productivity, motivation, judgment, and job satisfaction. Resilience training feeds the efficacy of everyday operations and creates a new basis for how we handle times of intensity and crisis.  It affects how well we integrate what we learn and how quickly we recover.  We explore here what a different norm looks like on both the personal and the organizational levels — greater productivity & efficiency, less stress, more aligned with purpose, with more integrated professional, physical, spiritual and emotional lives. 

Resilience in Leadership rigorously provides students with opportunities to critically examine and engage on intellectual, emotional, and embodied levels what it means to be a resilient leader in the 21st century. Students begin to cultivate their best “resilient selves” by mapping and writing a personal resilience philosophy & plan based on the semester’s assigned resources and activities, which include interacting with the larger Bozeman community. 

Topics investigated throughout the semester include a survey of past and current theoretical approaches including new realities and changing paradigms for 21st century leaders and organizations; historical and current perspectives on resilience including resilience by design, the resilient brain, the human as ecology, adaptive coping with fear, rejection and failure, cluster theory, stress and energy management, the psychology of happiness, resilience through trauma and crisis, systems theory in resilience, translational leaders, the role of rest, deep play and beauty, micro-resilience, resilient upstanders, tracking and mapping resilience, generative organizational resilience, the indicator species of resilience, vocational discernment and the moral imperative of resilient choices. 

Catalog Description:
Resilience design is where efficiency meets strength meets delight.  As we experience turbulent and complex change at planetary scales, this seminar is an interdisciplinary journey in dynamic resilience theory and practice, developing skills for personal resilience and impact along with application of resilience intelligence to the global stage. Created within the Human Leadership Development Program, it welcomes a diversity of students committed to resilient leadership and integrative design solutions.

Course Delivery:
Our course will be taught using both face to face (in the classroom) instruction, concurrently with D2L (MSU’s electronic on-line learning platform) instruction.

Required Materials:

• Zolli, A. & Healy, A.M. (2011) Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back.  New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. (on reserve at Renne Library)
• Schiraldi, G. (2011) The Resilience Workbook. (on reserve at Renne Library)
• Soojing-Kim Pang, A. (2016). Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less.  New York, NY: Basic Books. (on reserve at Renne Library)

• A selection of On Being interviews with Krista Tippett. (podcasts available online)
• An unlined sketch book
• Assorted outside articles & relevant material.
  
  

Learning Outcomes:
Through our course students will be able to:

• Synthesize relevant examples of resilience from a variety of disciplines.
• Create a critical dialogue around key resilience elements.
• Practice self-awareness and capacity for self-adjustment toward resilience leadership.
• Extend and communicate their resilience knowledge into the broader community of MSU and beyond.
• Demonstrate the value of resilience as a fundamental human and moral responsibility.
• Develop a familiar and comfortable relationship with risk and failure, to be assessed by both teacher and peers.
• Apply resilience mental models to complete a personal and professional resilient leader philosophy and plan.
• Develop and draw upon a rich personal toolbox for calmness, enthusiasm, purpose, and vitality in the presence of interior and exterior stressors.

Format and Procedures:
This is a “Web Enhanced Course” utilizing the MSU learning management system, D2L, as well as “Face to Face” participation in the physical classroom. D2L can be accessed by logging onto: http://ecat.montana.edu.  You will see the course in your “My Courses” widget. The title of the course is UC491 - Resilience in Leadership.    

Course requirements:
Active participation in the weekly discussions and completion of the assignments are necessary for the successful completion of the course. Be prepared to be a full, active, and conscious participant in all portions of this class. Remember, you personally determine what you gain from this course by how much you put into it.  Active participation will give you the opportunity to develop and refine a higher order of thinking skills and give you opportunities to receive feedback on an ongoing basis.  And resilience intelligence naturally generates calm and well-being in the face of internal and external stressors.

Activities/Assignment Guidelines:

• Journal entries are turned in as hard copies.
• Attendance is mandatory. I will take attendance at each class and both attendance and participation form a portion of your final grade. Learning resilience intelligence takes consistent practice and participation; if you are not in class, you lose a day out of your learning. In addition, you deprive me and your class colleagues of your input into our discussions.

Grading Criteria:
Below is an explanation of the grading system for this seminar. In brief, there are 820 total available points, which you can earn through your individual, learning pair and group performance.

Your final grade for the course will be based on the following point scale, based on a total of 820 available points.

Nota bene:
Our topics will delve equally into the theoretical and the practical realms of resilience.  In this course, you will be challenged to examine yourself and your choices in the context of personal and leader mindfulness.  You will actively pursue an understanding of where your current boundaries of resilience exist in relation to where they are actually needed.  This work can be personally and emotionally challenging and includes developing modes of self-support that feed into generating returns to balance. 

Course Etiquette:
Our class relies heavily on interpersonal discussions, collaboration and communication. In this type of class and based on our course subject it is a mandatory requirement that we are respectful of each other in our communications, online and in person.

In-class Participation Evaluation Criteria:
Participation is graded on individual, learning pair and team contribution to our seminar. The development of written and oral skills is given a high priority in our course. Please consider our class a learning laboratory in which you can test your ability to convince your peers of the correctness of your approach.  Some of the characteristics that evidence your effective participation are:

• Clarify your own and class colleagues’ assumptions. Contribute something that builds on, or springs from, what someone else has said.
• Ask a question or make a comment that encourages a colleague to elaborate on something they have already said and show your interest.
• Summarize discussion conversations and/or suggest new directions and questions we can explore in the future.
• Make a summary observation that considers several colleagues’ contributions and that touches on a recurring theme in the discussion.
• Demonstrate a willingness to take risks and be vulnerable, even in the face of uncertainty or possible rejection or correction. (Feeds into developing a healthy relationship with failure!)
• Provide relevant examples to enhance understanding.

Schedule: 

Week 1: Purpose & Overview(Aug. 27, 29)

Resources

1. Syllabus/Learning Contract
2. Resilience. Chapter 1: Robust, Yet Fragile

 Discussion & Activities

1. Introductions & Course Overview
2. Definitions of resilience
3. Assign teams/team-building activities/teacher interview
4. Discussion: What’s at stake?  What is different today from 20 years ago and why does it matter?
5. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 2: Resilience in a New Century: An Eco-Design Approach (Sept. 2, 5)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 2: Sense, Scale & Swarm
2. On Being interview: A Shift to Humility: Resilience and Expanding the Edge of Change with Andrew Zolli (Teo & Matthew)

Discussion & Activities

1. In-class exercises & discussion – Resilience Evolution – better than back-to-normal
2. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
3. Discussion: Using the lens of scale & swarm, contribute a concrete example of the most resilient system that you have personally experienced.
4. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 3: The Resilient Mind/Body (Sept. 10,12)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 3: The Power of Clusters
2. ‘To Be of Use’ poem by Marge Piercy
3. On Being interview: Soul Food, Sex & Space with Nikki Giovanni OR Toward a Contemplative Ecology, with Andrew Zolli (Ash & Claude)

Discussion & Activities

1. Guest speaker – Adding Health & Balance to a System
2. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions -- Thursday
3. Discussion: Much of our current systems and culture remove health.  What is it, therefore, to be a healthy deviant?  What does it take? How does this affect leadership?
4. Current personal health survey
5. EHHD 20x20 – Radical Compassion & Social Courage (Thursday)
6. Embodied Resilience & Leadership -- Experiments Log

Week 4: Human as Ecology: Diversity, Systems & Ethics (Sept. 17,19)

Resources

1. Practical Permaculture, Chapter 1: Permaculture Basics (on 4-hour reserve)
2. ‘The Seven of Pentacles’ poem by Marge Piercy
3. On Being interview: Parker Palmer & Courtney Martin: The Inner Life of Rebellion OR The Vitality of Ordinary Things with Michael Longley(James)

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – holism, systems thinking, biodiversity & a pattern language
3. Discussion: How are the permaculture ethics & principles of closed loops, caring, by-products, functional interconnection, emergent solutions and biomimicry relevant to human life applications?  Give examples.
4. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 5: Resilience, Rejection & Failure (Sept. 24, 26)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 4: The Resilient Mind, & Chapter 5: Cooperation When It Counts
2. TED talk: Jia Jiang — What I learned from 100 days of rejection (18 minutes) [ALL WATCH]
3. On Being interview: A History of Doubt with Jennifer Michael Hecht OR … 

 Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & discussion
2. In-class exercises & discussion – Tell a story about an experience of rejection and failure, examining your response and patterns.
3. Course assessment tool
4. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 6:  Resilient Students in the World: In the Community, of the Community (Oct. 1,3)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 6: Cognitive Diversity
2. On Being interview: Nancy Cantor & Christopher Howard: Beyond the Ivory Tower OR The Intelligence in All Kinds of Work with Mike Rose

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – cultural change warriors. We believe we will make a difference once we have: a degree, passion, money, maturity, connections, credibility…  Discuss which of these you have held as true and have thus limited yourself more than any circumstances.
3. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 7: Translational Leaders: Impact, Influence, Inspiration (Oct. 8, 10)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 7: Communities That Bounce Back
2. On Being interview: How Change Happens in Generational Time with America Ferrera and John Paul Lederach (Josh & Preston)

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – characteristics, integrity.
   1. Soft eyes experiences
   2. Two-part values writing
   3. What goes in your toolbox? – letter to a friend
   4. Emotion is experienced in thebody.
3. Brightspace: Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log or “Resilience Is” interviews

Week 8: Trauma & Crisis (Oct. 15, 17)

Resources

1. Schiraldi, G. (2011) The Resilience Workbook. (on reserve at Renne Library)
2. On Being interview: Kate Braestrup or Bessel van der Kolk

Discussion & Activities

1. Assign new OB teams and interviews
2. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
3. In-class exercises & discussion -- curiosity & mindfulness practices, emotional intelligence & adaptive coping. How do we create a pre-emptive mindset and systems that allows us to recover from stress, trauma and adversity? 
4. Brightspace: Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log or “Resilience Is” interviews

Week 9: Rest, Pleasure, Deep Play & Beauty (Oct. 22, 24)

Resources

1. Soojung-Kim Pang, A. (2016) Rest. Part One.   (on reserve at Renne Library)
2. On Being interview: Bessel van der Kolk 

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – Mining, 168 hours.  How much do I actually know about what sustains me and what drains and costs me? 
3. Brightspace: Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log or ”Resilience Is” interviews

Week 10: Mapping Resilience (Oct. 29, 31)

Resources

1. Soojung-Kim Pang, A. (2016) Rest. Part Two & Conclusion.   (on reserve at Renne Library)
2. On Being interviews: Frank Wilczek 

Discussion & Activities

1. In-class exercises & discussion – The Tarn Praxis. What are the metrics of a truly resilient life?  What is the currency?  What do we measure?
2. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 11: The Helix of Growth: Organizational Resilience (Nov. 5, 7)  (one class-day this week)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 8: The Translational Leader
   1. Give an example of a translational leader in your life, or examples of when you yourself were a translational leader.

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – “In the Box”, “But Really”.  What are feedback mechanisms that a resilient organization can use to determine when an abrupt change or threshold is nearing? 
3. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 12: Indicator Species of Resilience: The Irrepressible Inner Life (Nov. 12,14)

Resources

1. Resilience. Chapter 9: Bringing Resilience Home
2. On Being interview: Mirabai Bush

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion -- How do we measure joy? How do we hold ourselves accountable for it?
3. The Tree of Contemplative Practices
4. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

 Week 13: Review of Course & Presentations Reports (Nov. 19) (one class-day this week)

Resources

1. On Being interview: Br. David Steindl-Rast
2. In-class video resources.

Discussion & Activities

1. Team-led On Being interview presentation & questions
2. In-class exercises & discussion – “In the Box”, “But Really”.  What are feedback mechanisms that a resilient organization can use to determine when an abrupt change or threshold is nearing? 
3. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 14: The Moral Framing of Our Age (Nov. 26, 28)

Resources

1. In-class video resources

Discussion & Activities

1. In-class exercises & discussion
2. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 15: Final Papers & Discussions (Dec. 3,7)

Resources

1. In-class video resources.

Discussion & Activities

1. In-class exercises & discussion
2. Resilience & Leadership Experiments Log

Week 16:    Final Exams (Dec. 10,14)

1. Presentations

Final Exam for UC 491-003 is Monday, December 9^th at 12:00 – 1:50pm. 

IMPORTANT: Winter Break begins after your last final exam. Do not make travel plans without first checking to see when your last final exam for the semester is scheduled.

Welcome!

If you would like to learn more about the Leadership Fellows Certificate Program,
contact Elizabeth Roberts Williamson at [email protected].
The Leadership Fellows office is at 242 Reid Hall.
The phone number is 406-994-2016.