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LEADERSHIP OF CULTURES AND STRUCTURING FOR COMMUNICATION
The advanced Essence of Leadership builds upon the work of Essence of Leadership I, yet does not require it. Moving on from a freedom from models and images of leadership that do not take into account your basic, natural strength, we will be addressing advanced topics. Our first major topic will be how to lead a culture. There used to be large discussions about corporate cultures and productive cultures, Yet, even in their heyday, conversations about how to lead the way to a stable, vibrant, productive, and satisfying culture were conspicuous by their absence. Most leaders find that when you have groups of people working together over time, you also have cultural undertows that begins to strongly shape what people will do, won't do, will produce, won't produce, will think, won't think, etc. Yet most of our conversations about leadership only address how to lead people and not how to lead cultures. Ignoring culture dooms us to be continually thwarted and suppressed by the culture we inherit. Making the underpinnings of culture visible allows see ways to shape cultures in a way that can support and enhance the directions we intend to head. In addressing what it takes to provide leadership to the development of cultures, we will need to clarify the nature of images that hold a culture, invent methods for altering the images underlying a culture, as well as address how to establish heroes, legends, and games that galvanize a culture. We will also address the judicious use of rumor. In addition, we will look at how to build into cultures deep sources of power and inspiration. Our second major topic will be principles for structuring an organization or group for communication. This includes periodicities - structuring who ought to speak with whom, how often, about what, as well as media - through what medium. We will devise principles for when to use face-to-face, in-person conversation, when to use video, phone, e-mails, voice-mails, etc. Organizations and cultures are held together by communication structures, much like a body is built on the skeletal structure and nervous system. Recognizing the principles by which this works allows one to build vitality and stability into an emerging culture through the intelligent use of structures for communication. As an investigation into a potent dimension of structuring for communication, we will also practice designing measures that shape work activity and their analysis. If measures are viewed metaphorically as the flight dials aboard aircraft, we can begin to see the importance of well-invented metrics that allow us to be proactive in steering the direction, rather than those that report on a crisis situation too late to respond intelligently (the proverbial "idiot lights"). We are currently flying many modern organizations with old flight dials and hence are missing much that our new insights into modern life could tell us. Putting to work an expanded view that combines cultural leadership and communication structures, we will also point towards the power of developing a community of leaders (rather than the lone leader model) as a more stable and insightful social structure for leaders and their connection with the wider culture. In short, Essence of Leadership II will let you bring your talents and strengths to shaping a culture of communication in which large accomplishments are both possible and likely.
The tuition for this program is $2000. There are no prerequisites for this program. If you would like to attend a session of the Essence of Leadership I prior to this course, there is a special package price for both. Please call our office for more information. If you have any questions, would like additional information or would like to register for this program, please email us, or call the Contegrity office at (972) 387-9090.
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