BA(Honours) Professional Development
Module Guide
Organisational Leadership
NORD3004
Module Leader: Lee Norburn
Lee Norburn 2013-2014
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Module Description
A multi layered explorations of the impact of leadership on organisational dynamics. The
module will explore a range of perspectives on organisations and the impact these
perspectives can have on leadership behaviour. The role of leadership and the emergent
nature of change will also be introduced. The module is designed to explore the
participative nature of leadership from a complexity perspective, and will encourage you
to reflect deeply on your own lived experience of leadership and organisational life. The
cohort that you are part of will be used to explore the nature of leadership and organising
as we work together through the year.
Module Aims:
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Explore a range of perspectives on the nature of leadership and organisations.
Help individuals reflect on their current views of leadership and organisations and
how these relate to their own lived experience.
Encourage students to slow down and attend to their lived experience of being in
organisations long enough for new ways of making sense of their experience to
emerge.
Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module students will be able to:
LO1
LO2
LO3
LO4
Analyse the impact on leadership of holding different perspectives on
organisations.
Attend to and reflect on your own lived experience of leadership and organisations,
drawing particular attention to the impact of your own way of being.
Demonstrate the ability to use a broad range of ways to make sense of your
experience of organisations.
Demonstrate an approach to reflective practice that will enable you to continue to
develop your own practice beyond the length of the course.
Learning Philosophy
It is you who constructs meaning from knowledge, not the lecturer who delivers it.
At Level 6 of Higher Education you are expected to demonstrate
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A comprehensive knowledge with an awareness of the provisional nature of the
knowledge and a spirit of inquiry that prompts you, on the basis of your learning, to
ask and discover important questions for yourself;
An ability to analyse and synthesis to transform concepts towards a given purpose
such as the essay discourse, and self reflection
An ability to critically evaluate and give evidence to support your conclusions with
review of their validity and significance, taking your own lived experience as valid
data
The confidence to apply your knowledge as you identify and define complex
problems and to respond reflexively
The ability to reflect with your peers, and mutually assess and assist each other’s
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learning.
Indicative Scheme of Work and Syllabus: - DRAFT –
Week1 Seminar Introduction to Module and each otherIntroduction to the course, module guide and reading list.
Getting to know each other, timelines and what we are each bringing to this
conversation.
Introduction to holding a question. Students will be invited to be curious
about their current professional practice and to find a question to inquire
into. This could be a problem, an opportunity, a behaviour, assumption or
expectation.
Reading – Reading is essential on this course so start now, feel free to
explore the reading list. Notice what captures your attention, and bring any
questions or observations back to the class.
Reflection – Find a question that is meaningful to you about your current
practice.
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Lecture: The power of Listening for Effective Leadership
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Sharing your question with the group.
Introduction to the active listening model, practice and reflection
Students practice in fours. Using the model, students take turns in telling
a story, with three students listening, one taking notes of: information,
emotion, and intention.
Reflection – What did you experience during your session? What was
easy, what was hard? What learning have you identified for yourself?
3
Reading/Reflection: Familiarise yourself with the GROW model and nondirective coaching
Seminar – The art of Inquiry
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Introduction to non-Directive Coaching as an approach to leadership.
Pen Game – how we make sense of the relationship between coach and
coachee.
Introduction to the Grow model and the T-model. Paired exploration, and
maybe class exploration. Practice and reflection on practice.
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Reading / Reflecting De Hann, E. Sills, C (2012) The relational coaching
field book, Faringdon: Libri Publishing.
Downey, M. (2003) Effective Coaching: Lessons from the coach’s coach.
Thomson Texere ISBN 1-58799-172-1
Seminar – How effective leaders make sense of their world.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Introduction activity to Jung’s four ways of knowing.
Question – how do you know if something is good?
Capturing our ways of knowing.
Lecture: Introduction to Jung and the four ways of knowing
Introduction to the model, and its implications on leadership in the digital
age.
Peers conversation – in small groups reflecting on Jung and the question
of how we know if something is good. How can we make senses of our
lived experience using Jungs model? Students are encouraged to capture
their conversation in an expressive way.
Two small groups then come together for some joint sense making. This is
support lightly by the lecturer.
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Reading/Reflection: Patricia Shaw Chapter in Changing Conversation
Seminar: Sense making from different perspectives.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Lecturer led conversation to identify a current leadership issue, challenge,
change or question from within the group. The group decided together
which they would like to explore more, which they have the most
energy/interest for. Class inquiry, practice of non-directive questioning.
Paired Conversations: In pairs students have three different
conversations. Each conversation explores the issue from a different
perspective, with the students talking from that perspective. E.g. Manager,
team member, process, objective, system etc.
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Reading/Reflection: Images of Organisations Gareth Morgan – paired
reading, this book will introduce you to common ways of making sense of
organisations. In pairs you will be expected to read specific chapters and
make your own sense of what they mean
Images of Organisations Session
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
In pairs you will be invited to create a way of sharing your understanding of
the text you have read. You will be encouraged to use methods of
expression that do not rely on the written word. The intention here is to
further develop your experience of making sense of organisations in
different ways.
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Assignment – reflecting on the contribution of leaders approach to conversation,
and it’s potential to amplify or dampen patterns of being in the workplace. How does
the way we make sense of organisations enable and disable us?
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Lecture: Dialogical Space, leadership and conversation
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Lecturer lead introduction to the concept of Dialogical Space, (Pigeon and
Vanstone) an introduction to the ideas behind holding open conversation in
order for novelty to emerge. Exploration of the whole body nature of
conversation.
Student small group work: In small groups students are invited to reflect
on their own lived experience and capture in a creative way what they may
notice, in themselves and others as conversation shifts from the dialogical
space.
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Reading/Reflection: Chapter One David Bohm on Dialogue
Seminar: Exploring different ways of talking as broadening the
effectiveness of leadership.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
As well as identifying key questions that have arisen for you during your
reading you will be asked to have a dialogue around the question
‘How are different ways of engaging with others empowering and
constricting for leaders?’
This session is to be run as a dialogue, not a debate or discussion,
exploring some of the key themes Bohm suggests as important to effective
dialogue.
Seminar: Students are invited to share their questions from the reading
about dialogical space.
Introduction to the dialogical space model as a way of making sense of our
experience of being in conversation with others.
Students activity – to explore the experience of slipping into the red and
slipping into the blue, and capture cues that might help leaders make sense
of conversation as they emerges.
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Reflection: To pay attention to their own conversation and see if they can
notice shifts or patterns in the conversations they are part of. What is your
role in these patterns?
Reading: Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J and Fisch, R (1974). Change:
Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution.
Change – natural paradox of Change,
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Whole class conversation exploring the four types of paradox identified by
Watzlawick.
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Students will then break into smaller groups to explore their own lived
experience for examples the different paradox, and the impact of these
paradoxes on organisational life and leadership.
Reading – Dialogical Space Chapter by Hugh Pidgeon
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Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Seminar: Students are invited to share their questions from the reading
about dialogical space.
Introduction to the dialogical space model as a way of making sense of our
experience of being in conversation with others.
Students activity – to explore the experience of slipping into the red and
slipping into the blue, and capture cues that might help leaders make sense
of conversation as they emerges.
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Reflection: To pay attention to their own conversation and see if they can
notice shifts or patterns in the conversations they are part of. What is your
role in these patterns?
Lecture: Introduction to Complexity and Chaos.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Lecture on the changing nature of human understanding. The
Organisations as Machines lecture.
This session will explore the nature of human understanding from the
1600’s through the industrial revolution and into the digital age.
Lecturer led group conversation – exploration of what they have heard.
This may or may not lead to a conversation of the difference between the
positivist and participative paradigms.
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Reading/Reflection: Introduction to Complex Responsive Processes of
Relating Article – Ralph Stacey This paper introduces students to the shift
from thinking of organisations as systems to Complex Responsive
Processes of Relating (CRP)
Seminar: Reflection on CRP Reading
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
As part of students developing their leadership skills students will be offered
the chance to lead a dialogue based on the article.
What questions have emerged?
What was it like to read this article?
What makes sense, what does not make sense?
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Reading/Reflection: Changing Conversations in Organizations: A
Complexity Approach to Change: Patricia Shaw
Seminar:
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
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Storytelling and Complex Responsive Processes of Relating.
As a cohort, the students will be invited to tell a very structured story, with a
pre-defined start, and end, as well as key characters and incidents. The
class will be asked to share their experience of the task.
The class will then be asked to create their own story, with one simple rule,
no more than a sentence each.
Students will again be asked to share their experiences, what was different
and what was the same?
This exercise is designed to lead to a conversation around the constraining
and enabling patterns of relating within the group. A lived example of CRP
in practice.
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Reading/Reflection: CRP Article, or Chapter tbc…
What restricts and enables you in your work? What is your lived experience
of this paradox of enablers and constraints occurring both at the same time.
Reflection session – Making Sense of your learning so far; developing
your areas of interest.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Students will be encouraged to use a range of expressive methods to share
their sense making of the course so far.
Students will then be asked to reflect on each other’s work and explore
differences and similarities in their sense making.
Reading/Reflection – Students will be expected to identify any reading or
reflective activities they feel are most useful to help develop their
understanding further, also student can use this opportunity to develop their
own personal interests further.
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Reflection Session – Making sense of your learning so far, developing
your areas of interest.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
You will be given time to share your learning from the reading your decided
to explore.
You will be encouraged to pay attention to any personal questions that have
emerged for you in relation to leadership.
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Lecture: CRP – Ralph Stacey Video
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Followed by an invitation for a student to lead a conversation from the
programme.
Reading/Reflection: The Paradoxical Model of Leadership. Article
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introducing the nature of being in control and not in control at the same
time.
Seminar – Lecturer led conversation around the questions emerging for
students around CRP
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
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Reading/Reflection: Complexity Articles that most seem to support the
emerging interests and needs of the group; this would be added to the VLE
after some consideration, students should also be encouraged to find their
own interests and ways of making sense of these new ideas..
Seminar – in small groups students will be given time to find questions that
are emerging for them, around leadership and complexity.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Students will also be asked to prepare for a skype with a business leader
who currently works from a complexity perspective.
this
Reading /Reflection: Students will be asked to prepare themselves for the
following Skype session.
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Seminar – Students will engage in a Skype call with a business leader who
currently works from a complexity perspective.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Reading/Reflection: Students will be asked to continue to notice how their
own questions inform their being in the work place.
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Lecture Contrasting the emerging and the traditional ideas of
organisational leadership.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
You will have been explore emerging ideas of leadership for some time by
this point, but will be aware that a lot of text and current practices are still
based on old school approaches to understanding and making sense of
organisations and leadership. This lecture will introduce some key contrasts
between these two ways of making sense of the world.
You will be given a range of traditional concepts to explore in relation to
more modern ways of making sense of organisations and leadership.
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Reading/Reflecting: Identify an example of where these old ways of
thinking are still alive in your life, and consider how they same experience
might be understood differently from a complexity perspective.
Seminar – You will be asked to share your experience of how traditional
ways of making sense of organisations are still alive, and how these in turn
impact on how you work, and relate to others at work.
How do current leadership practices constrain and enable effective
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business?
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
You will be encouraged to pay attention to any questions that are emerging
for you and your practice. These will be used to inform your assignment.
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Reading/Reflection: You will be encouraged once again to pay attention to
how traditional ways of working and concepts of leadership are alive in your
work. To identify how they constrain and enable effective business.
…
Seminar – Student led:
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
You will be given the opportunity in small groups to lead your own
conversations exploring your experience of leadership in organisations,
drawing on both traditional and emerging ways of making sense of
organisational life.
You will also be encouraged to share any question that is emerging for you
about your practice.
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Reading/Reflection Before you finish you will be expected to agree as a
group some text, or reflection to carry out before the next session.
…
Student led Seminars – Sharing your learning and reflections.
Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
You will be invited to change groups and share with each other in small
student led dialogues your learning and further questions since the previous
week.
These two student led session will also give you a practical experience of
leading groups to make sense of leadership, and organisations.
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Lecturer lead Seminar – You will be brought back together for a reflective
session that explores the experience of leading the previous two weeks.
… Checking in, arriving and becoming present with the group.
Recommended reading:
D’Souza and Renner, D. (2014) Not Knowing: The Art of Turning Uncertainty into
Possibility. London. LID Publishing ISBN 10: 1907794484
Downey, M. (2003) Effective Coaching: Lessons from the coach’s coach. Thomson
Texere ISBN 1-58799-172-1
De Hann, E. Sills, C (2012) The relational coaching field book, Faringdon: Libri Publishing
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Herman S, &Korenich M, (1977) Authentic Management: Gestalt Orientation to
Organisations and their development. Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Company.
ISBN 0201028867
Gergen, K.J. (2009). An Invitation to Social Construction. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage,
2nd Edition ISBN 1412923018.
King, K. Higgins, J. A Relational Perspective, Theories and Stories from the Field.
London, Middlesex University Press, ISBN 978-1-904750147
Morgan, G. (1986, revised 2006). Images of Organization. London: Sage Publications
Ltd. ISBN 1412939798 [Library reference: AK (MOR)]
Morgan, G (1997). Images of Organization. Sage Publications, London, ISBN 0-80392831-9
Pidgeon, H. Consulting from a Dialogic Orientation, p.68 in Critchley, B., Higgins J. and
King K. (2007) Organisational Consulting: A Relational Perspective, Theories and Stories
from the Field. London, Middlesex University Press, ISBN 978-1-904750147.
Schon, D. (1991). The Reflective Practitioner. Aldershot: Ashgate Arena. ISBN
1857423194. [Library reference: APH (SCH)] (helpful for reflective development
throughout programme).
Shaw, P. (2002). Changing Conversations in Organizations. London: Routledge, ISBN
0415249147.
Stacey, R.D. and Griffin, D. and Shaw, P. (2002). Complexity and Management: Fad or
Radical Challenge to Systems Thinking? London: Routledge. ISBN 0415247616
Stacey, R (2001). Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and
Knowledge Creation. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415249198.
Stacey, R. (2002). Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge
of Complexity. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. ISBN 0273708112. (this book spans the past 10
years of the emergence of complexity thinking about organisations. It can serve as a good
basis on which to develop your understanding.)
Streatfield, P. (2001). The Paradox of Control in Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN
0415250323.
Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J and Fisch, R (1974). Change: Principles of Problem
Formation and Problem Resolution.
Wheatley, M. (2006). Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic
World, 3rd edn. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler. ISBN 1576753441
Further articles and journals are currently being reviewed to ensure an up to date
and progressive and challenging reading is available to the students.
Journals and Articles
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A relational approach to organisation development
King, K. (2012) A relational approach to organisation development, 360° The Ashridge
Journal, pp. 53 - 57, Autumn
Link
http://www.ashridge.org.uk/Website/IC.nsf/wFARATT/A%20relational%20approach
%20to%20organisation%20development/$File/ARelationalApproachToOrganisationDevel
opment.pdf
Developing consultants and leaders of change for our present, troubled times
Link
http://www.ashridge.org.uk/Website/IC.nsf/wFARATT/Developing%20consultants%20and
%20leaders%20of%20change%20for%20our%20present,%20troubled%20times/$file/De
velopingConsultantsAndLeadersOfChange.pdf
Supplementary Reading
Barrett, F. J. and Fry, R. E. (2005). Appreciative Inquiry. A Positive Approach to Building
Cooperative Capacity. Ohio: Taos Institute Publications. ISBN 078802163X.
Capra, F on changing consciousness, a short film published on the internet:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0MzLR8nII&feature=PlayList&p=7C583EA75374B2F
7&index=0&playnext=1>
Critchley, B, Higgins, J. and King, K. (2007). Organisational Consulting - A Relational
Perspective: Theories and Stories from the Field. London: Middlesex University Press.
ISBN 9781904750147
Gergen, K.J. (2009). An Invitation to Social Construction. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage,
2nd Edition ISBN 1412923018.
Griffin, D. (2002). The Emergence of Leadership. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415249171.
Isaacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the art of thinking together. New York: Doubleday, ISBN
0385479999. [Library reference: CA (ISA)]
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. ISBN 022648011
Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (eds) (2008). Handbook of Action Research: Participative
Inquiry and Practice, 2nd edition. London: Sage Publications Ltd. ISBN 0761966455.
Shaw, P. and Stacey R. [eds]. (2005). Experiencing Risk, Spontaneity and Improvisation
in Organizational Change.
Stacey R. and Griffin D. [eds]. (2005). A Complexity Perspective on Researching
Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415351316.
Videos and Talks
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TED TALKS
The following are a range of interesting talks and videos that support this module, and also
include more widely aspects of life that are valuable to pay attention when exploring what it
means to be a truly effective leader. I would also encourage you to follow your own interest
as it develops, and share with the class any talks you feel might be of interest.
Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend
http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.html
This presentation explore some ground breaking research into the human nature of stress, it
offers an alternative ‘reframing’ of stress.
Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html
This talk explores the impact of vulnerability and how it is essentially linked to innovation and
creativity
Brené Brown: Listening to shame
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html
This talk is the follow up to Brene first talk on vulnerability and again explore the power and
potential hidden in some aspects of human life we may consider weak or in-appropriate to
business.
Derek Sivers: How to start a movement
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html
How to start a movement is an interesting and insightful short talk exploring the relationship
between leader and follower.
Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
A sometimes funny, and deeply insight reflection on how our current way of thinking has led
to the current education system and its accompanying problems. There are wider issues here
that apply to leadership framed within the modern world.
Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html
A follow up talk from Ken Robinson with further insights, if you liked the first one you may
want to endulge.
Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html
Ken Robinson explore what he considers the three key concepts to the flourishing of the
human mind. As leaders the concept of enabling the flourishing of humans should be at the
forefront of your practice.
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
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An interesting exploration into an inverted look at the standard approach to market, and
individual leadership, when all things are the same, how can you be different?
Benjamin Zander: The transformative power of classical music
http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Who am I being that my children’s eyes are not shining? This Talk has an interesting take on
paying attention to our self as a way of eliciting change in the world around us.
There are many many other exceptional talks to watch, enjoy exploring
Youtube
Kenneth Gergen conference in Chile part 1 to 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_5aQqlMWN0&list=PL520EA52200AADCEC
This is an interesting and useful introduction to the concept of social constructionism. This
concept understands the fabric of our reality being emergent from the way in which we
interact and talk with one another. If we start to hold this concept as a potential way of
understanding our world it can open up an whole new approach to leadership
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