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Growing future leaders
Currently, the leadership and management development market is failing to provide solutions that adequately address a key concern from forward-thinking clients- how do I develop an organisation that will survive and thrive in a turbulent world?
In a recent collection of sponsored articles in FT.com within the 'Mastering Uncertainty' series, leading academics wrote about different aspects of uncertainty and risk. Of particular interest to ABC is the article written by Rosenzweig 'The fruitless search for certainty' , 'Turn on tune in to stay ahead' by Goffee and a separate article by Eammon Kelly on the 17th March in the FT . A theme that ran through these articles is that in our complex world, it is no longer possible to know exactly what will happen next. As Kelly said 'We crave for certainty and straightforward answers in our business and intellectual lives, but are more likely to be confronted by paradox and the unknown'. With this in mind, it is unlikely that the management skills acquired which are based on linearity and predictability will continue to serve us well into the future.
For some time, ABC has been researching and evolving an approach to developing leaders that befits our times. In collaboration with a group of artists, ABC is delighted to provide a highly experiential learning opportunity.
Key capabilities
The event hopes to deal directly with responses which Kelly described in his article as 'essential capabilities to:
- Stay relaxed in the face of overwhelming disorder, confusion and ambiguity
- Seek out multiple and conflicting views, while being aware of one's biases and blind spots
- Focus on the future, emergent as well as the planned
- Embrace risk-taking
- Learn rapidly from failure
- Be open, flexible and even, on occasions, playful'
Growing leaders for the future requires an approach that extends beyond an intellectual understanding of risk and uncertainty.
ABC's approach [top]
The experiential learning event called 'Leading in uncertain times' is created for participants to gain a living insight into the responses that arise when engaged in creative activities and to develop mindset and skills 'in the moment' as they experience uncertainty.
'Leading in uncertain times' draws on a number of theories, practices and philosophies including Complexity, Theory U and Complex Responsive Processes and Action Learning. A mindful choice was made to work with facilitators who apply their 'craft' in creative ways and are capable of facilitating learning and change and whose work by nature is based on the opportunities uncertainty provides.
'Leading in uncertain times' can be created as a standalone event or as part of a Leadership or Management Development programme.
See our article on 'Leading in uncertain times'
Benefits [top]
At the individual level, participants will be adopting a way of learning through action guided by people who are keen to learn and 'walk the talk'. The experience is not just 'talking about' it is developing a way of knowing through doing. It is likely that participants will learn more about themselves and their response patterns to uncertain situations, a greater awareness of how their action impacts on others, the interdependencies that exist between people and whether there is in fact order within chaos.
For the organisation, the experience will enable leaders to develop what 'leading in uncertain times' mean for them in the context of your industry or sector and what might be the implications for the participants and for others going forward.
Related article
This article was downloaded from www.aandb.org.uk
(Re) Educating for Leadership (PDF opens in new window, 113KB)
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