Changing Organizations: The Challenge to Lead and Learn

July 21-25, 2008 · $2,500

Internationally renowned organizational consultant Jean Lipman-Blumen states, The time-worn foundations of authoritarian, competitive, and ruggedly individualistic leadership are eroding. This institute will encourage participants to shift their cultural emphasis from that of an individual leader to a connective leader who learns with his or her peers through participation in a learning community. Learning, Jean Lave suggests, ... is an integral and inseparable aspect of social practice. The information explosion and its increasing impact within organizations demand that we examine our own practice and relationship to learning and leadership.

How do we lead others within a learning process and create a knowledge community for ourselves and our organizations? Using a model of problem-based learning, one assumes that learning involves both learning and doing within a specific social context, learning within a community. Knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge are of equal importance, claims Phillip Hallinger (1995). Understanding and experiencing this connection is central to the work of this institute.

During this four-day institute, participants will engage in a problem-based learning process. By partnering with a business organization, a specific organizational problem will be presented for analysis, facilitation, recommendation, and resolution. Theory and application will be presented within the domains of situated learning, high performance teams, and problem-based learning methodology. Facilitation and feedback will be provided by expert practitioners in the arena of organization development and effectiveness.

Human Resource professionals who have responsibilities in human resource management, workplace learning and performance, or organizational development, and who maintain mid- to executive-level management and leadership positions are encouraged to attend. By week's end, participants will:

• Develop a knowledge base in connective leadership, situated learning, problem-based learning and team performance
• Participate on a problem-based learning team
• Support the development of a high-performing team
• Experience feedback as a member of a problem-based learning team
• Cultivate a process orientation to higher quality outcomes

"Thoughtful, engaging presentations by both top scholars and rising talent—more than worth the price of admission—the resources, connections, and talent both in the faculty and participants enlivened and enriched the experience." — Donna Qualters, Associate Professor & Director, Center for Effective University Teaching, Northeastern University