Leadership for Change

Every facet of this conference is experiential and is purposely designed to promote dynamic interchange and shared learning among a group of diverse peers. The program doesn't teach answers to specific problems. Rather, it provides a social ‘laboratory’ for exploring the dynamics of power, leadership, authority, change and transformation as they actually arise and unfold during the conference. Participants are exposed to a method of ‘reflection-in-action’ that utilizes both the intellect and emotions and can reveal profound truths, such as:

• Many of our (re)actions are driven by beliefs and patterns of thinking that lie beyond our immediate level of awareness
• We have become so accustomed to ‘doing something/anything’ to fix problems that we lack the flexibility to simply let something ‘be’ until we can understand it better
• Authentic problem solving begins with being prepared to examine our own lived experience
• Control is the problem, not the solution

This way of learning may require giving up what we think we know – allowing ourselves to experience uncertainty – in order to make space for new thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Benefiting from it requires a willingness to surface and examine elements of personal identity and history that influence the ways we think about leadership, relate to authority, manage boundaries, respond to criticism, and handle conflict.

"Many people go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after. "
— Henry David Thoreau

The conference is designed to serve as a temporary institution that reproduces many of the characteristic features of organizational life. It is organized as a sequence of group and inter-group interactions. Working within this temporary institution that serves as both a case study and a laboratory for learning about how institutions operate, participants are able to study and analyze significant phenomena that arise in groups and teams in ways that are often not discussable in the other organizations to which they belong.

The experience is more intelligible if one sets aside expectations of a traditional conference or classroom and thinks more in terms of an art studio or a laboratory that provide space conducive to learning by experimentation and practice. Faculty and staff strive to create an atmosphere in which participants can surface unexamined assumptions, develop more adequate ways of seeing, and discover the lessons each is prepared to learn next.

This active learning model encourages participants to examine and evaluate their own assumptions and behaviors related to the exercise of leadership and authority in order to help them function more effectively in their outside roles.

Faculty and staff function in a variety of roles designed to encourage awareness, curiosity, analysis and deep learning. Working within the parameters of certain defined roles (e.g. director, consultant, administrator, observer), they attempt to encourage members to use various aspects of the conference as a means for learning about how groups function and how they as individuals affect – and are affected by – organizational dynamics.

Dr. Molenkamp, Conference Director, invites a conference staff for each event.

Conference events include a few research activities that facilitate participants’ reflection on their perceptions of leadership and on the conference itself. These activities are done anonymously and reports of the research refer only to groups, not to individuals. The research activities are planned to enrich the conference experience for everyone. However, your participation is completely voluntary, and your decision whether or not to take part in the research will not affect your treatment as a conference member or student in any way.