Leadership in Times of Chaos: Exploring Old and New Wisdom

Margaret Wheatley

One-week course

May 10 – 14, 2010

This course is open for bookings.

Course Overview

Leadership has never been as difficult and perplexing as it is today. In the past, leaders were challenged by great disruptions such as wars or natural disasters, but they dealt with these from a solid cultural basis—there was an acknowledged way to lead and respond (even when this failed.) Today, however, we have no such grounding. The systems that created modern crises cannot resolve them and, in fact, are dying. New systems based on new beliefs and practices must be created if we are to find our way through to new and real solutions. Leaders, therefore, are called upon to play two very different roles—hospice workers to the demise of failed systems and midwives to the birth of new ones.

This course is an inquiry into how we, as leaders, can understand the deep and conflicting dynamics of our role and make choices about who we choose to be for this ahistoric and deeply troubled time.

Course Detail

…An inquiry…

Each day of the course is organised as an exploration of a new and ancient belief that stands in contrast to the prevailing assumptions in use today for how to lead and organise:

…Implications and application…

We’ll explore the implications of these beliefs and the challenges they raise for us as leaders. We’ll harvest the wisdom gleaned from the experiences of all in the group. We’ll compare our personal wisdom to some of the great wisdom traditions of the past. We’ll challenge ourselves for how we take the wisdom we’ve gained and apply it every day—in the next meeting, the next budget decision, the next conversation, the next policy.

…Leader identity…

We’ll delve deeply into leader identity—what role do I willingly take on? How do I claim and use my power and authority? To what greater purpose do I hold myself accountable?

And we’ll feel nourished, focused, and strengthened as a result of our shared reflective inquiry.

Resources

Margaret Wheatley’s website contains a number of resources including articles on leadership and a video of a presentation given at May 2009 CQI Breakfast at Lansing Community College Fearless Leadership for These Times.

Teacher

Margaret Wheatley writes, teaches, and speaks about how we might organise and accomplish our work in chaotic times, and willingly step forward to serve. She is co-founder and President emerita of The Berkana Institute, a charitable global foundation that works in partnership with a rich diversity of people around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environment (www.berkana.org).

Margaret Wheatley has written five books: Leadership and the New Science (in twenty languages and third edition), Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (7 languages and second edition 2009,) A Simpler Way (with Myron Rogers), Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time, and Perseverance (forthcoming 2010). Her numerous articles appear in both professional and popular journals and may be downloaded free from her website. www.margaretwheatley.com

Wheatley received her doctorate in Organizational Behavior and Change from Harvard University, and a Masters in Media Ecology from New York University. She has been a global citizen since her youth, serving in the Peace Corps in Korea in the 1960s. She was a practising consultant for more than 30 years to an unusually diverse variety of organizations on all continents. She travels the world willingly, speaking and teaching in organisations, communities, universities, churches and conferences. She lives in the mountains of Utah; her large family is now dispersed throughout the U.S.

Course Fees

One week: £975

We want to make Margaret Wheatley’s exceptional work as accessible as possible to leaders from all sectors and therefore we have lowered the price from her 2008 session at Schumacher College by over £200.

All course fees include accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.

For further information about Schumacher College please see About the College

Apply

Click here to access our on-line booking system

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Reserve your place now

To provisionally reserve a place for 5 days, email us your contact details and the name of the course admin@schumachercollege.org.uk

We will hold the place for five working days for reservations – three weeks before a course or earlier. After five days we will automatically offer your place to someone else if we have not received your application.

Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.