Course Syllabus
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Course Content To inspire and enable people to lead effective change towards environmental sustainability, we have created a course to enhance individual change leadership skills as applied to a variety of organizational contexts (education, business, government, non-profit, church, community etc). The course is offered in a four-day residential format with additional evening online requirements to work in with the schedule of busy professionals and parents alike. The course explores what change leadership for sustainability is and guides students to advance their related capabilities, competencies and strategies. The personal, interpersonal, organizational and infrastructural dimensions of change leadership for sustainability are each addressed. A variety of specific case studies and examples of sustainability in practice, including everything from green building design and renewable energy to environmental purchasing are explored. Interdependencies between finance, politics, relationships, cognitive processes, capacity building, technology and more are discussed. Over the last decade of offering this course, we have developed a variety of effective conceptual frameworks and core insights to accelerate the learning process of our students. Students taking the course for credit will leave with a deeper experiential knowledge of change management because they are required to complete a project involving a real life actual change leadership project of their choice. Students typically find this project to be both deeply rewarding and central to the development of their knowledge and confidence as change managers. There will also be an online exam and additional small assignments to keep all students on track. This course is relevant for people in any profession and for those working in the for profit world the non-profit world and for people engaged in their own communities. It is as relevant for very experienced professions as it is for people just starting out. We need an army of skilled change makers in order to navigate the complexity and urgency of our global environmental crisis. In a world lacking adequate political, judicial and media leadership we can and must take leadership where we work and live, transforming our organizations on mass, fueling change at all levels of society. This course is designed to empower and prepare anyone that is willing to join in the collective effort to steer our society back on course towards a just and sustainability future.
RESIDENTIAL COURSE CONTENT The compulsory four day residential component of this course will cover the following content in lecture format. Group discussions and group activities will be used to enliven and connect the course content to the immediate needs and experience of students.
Introduction to Sustainability Leadership for the 21st Century This material will provide an overview of the course objectives, requirements and structure. It will also provide an introduction to the Change Management for Sustainability and the overall framework for the course. The interdependence of politics, relationships, finance & accounting, technology, psychology, adult learning, capacity building and more will be addressed.
The Global Context for Sustainability This material will ground us in a range of global environmental, historic and contemporary dimensions that define and impact the challenges and opportunities before us as we work to transform our organizations. By grounding ourselves in the big picture we will understand where we are, what is at stake and what the case is that we must make to others. We will also explore the personal demands of doing this effectively in a variety of contexts.
Change Within the Individual The work of an effective change manage involves cultivating the right conditions that will inspire and support change within individuals. These individually directed changes can include allocating precious attention to something new, attitudinal changes, the development of new individual capacities and confidence, the emergence of new internal belief systems, the adoption of new habits, a shift in mood, transcending personal and sometimes private fears, assumptions and mental models, all leading to the emergence of personal commitment, empowerment, engagement and action. This lecture will explore the domain of change within, what it takes, what conditions and processes are conducive and what skills we need to embark on this work. In addition, focus will be given to the unique demands that change agency places on the inner world of the change agent and what we can learn from the process of changing ourselves..
The Social Dynamics of Change This course content will explore the realm of interpersonal and social dynamics. The lecture will assist students in expanding their understanding of the power and place of social dynamics involved in most change experiences. The lecture will help students to understand and diagnose negative social dynamics. It will also help students to proactively leverage and utilize positive social dynamics as powerful drivers for change. Aspects of group process design (social technologies), group intelligence, peer to peer learning and social marketing will be addressed.
Change Within the Organization An institution or organization consists largely of group of procedures, systems, cultural and leadership habits that work together to maintain the equilibrium of the enterprise as it works toward its core goals. Much of the life of the organization exists out of sight and out of mind for the vast majority (if not all) of those working in it. The work of the change manager is understand the true life of their organization and to create effective tensions, incentives and pathways forward while reducing risk, maintaining organizational stability. This lecture will provide an overview of what we must look for as we seek to prepare ourselves with adequate organizational understanding. It will also provide a range of effective strategies for achieving change within the organization (in areas such as finance and accounting, decision making processes, leadership, cultural change, governance etc.) so that students can unleash the positive feedback cycle of well managed organizational change.
Change Within the Infrastructure Infrastructure change, that is instituting new technologies, products and services to change the physical and material operations and impacts of our organizations, is often the first and last thing that gets our attention (possibly because this is the field of work in which we can all see, touch, hear and sometimes smell the outcome). In most cases the initial work of achieving meaningful infrastructure change has involved a good deal of work in the arena of individual and organization change, however we often do not validate or learn from this work. In this lecture, we will further explore the ways in which our work can increase the pace at which our organizations can integrate new infrastructural innovations thereby fueling growth in the emerging green economy, driving change within broader society.
A Roadmap to Transformation This course content will bring together the core concepts of the class at a time when students are far enough along in their major project to reflect on their own experience to interpret and further develop their own change management frameworks and understandings. The webinar will focus upon the interdependencies of individual change, organizational change, infrastructure change and the development of a sustainable relationship with the Earths life support systems. |
Course Summary:
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