Class 4, Leading Strategy

Last night was my first Strategy class. There seems to be a pattern emerging right now, I've had two very idealistic, big idea classes, and this is my second more practical, grounded in reality class. I like it when we not only acknowledge ambiguity, but we really take a good hard look at it. I like the curriculum, I'm excited about my projects, and the teacher is very inclusive, non-egocentric, and fun to listen to/talk with. It's nice to be back in a class where multiple viewpoints are appreciated and seen as valid, rather than one. I'll go into more detail on my experience of the last class in a couple weeks.

The most interesting thing about this class so far is being with other cohorts and seeing how they interact, what their vibe is. Mine all sat at the front and interacted a lot, others hung back. But personalities started to emerge, and it was pretty fun. I'm planning to work my ass off, but thoroughly enjoy the next six weeks.

comparing and contrasting

Right now I'm reading two books for class. The Leadership Engine and The Dance of Change. Initially, the Dance of Change annoyed the crap out of me. It's gimmicky, often ponderous and uses stupid diagrams. But it's grown on me, and some of the guest writer sections are absolute gems.

The Leadership Engine is more trait theory masquerading as transformational leadership. "Leaders brush their teeth a certain way that's very leadery. " At one point, when talking about inspiring people, he cites two examples on the same page. A Service Master manager who went to the mat for his employees who were being mistreated by a surgeon. Great example. And a CEO at a company meeting who wore leiderhosen and had himself hoisted several hundred feet in the air to show the "heights" he wanted the company to meet.

Do you see any relation between these two events at all? One is ethical, genuine and couragous. The other; pagentry, goofy, and essentially a big internal stunt. This is supposed to be inspiring?

The you can practically see the author drooling all over Jack Welch's shoes. Interestingly enough, the other book for this class is Leading Change. I bought the wrong version of this book and didn't realize it till I'd been reading it for several weeks. I told the teacher and he said I could read the one I had instead. And that author thinks that Welch is the ultimate opporunist and has no real moral conviction or ethical foundation. I tend to agree. And the guy who wrote the Leadership Engine seems to fall into the same category. It's all about these traits that show up in more and amoral people; like the Built to Last guys, he seems to think that success is it's own reward, and ethics will naturally follow. Argrys would have a field day with this one.

long time no blog

School has continued to be interesting and challenging. I did well in Critical Thinking, which is by far my favorite class to date. I'm more than halfway through Leading Change, which has been alternately interesting and frustrating. But, like the first class, it has brought up a lot of questions about my own ethics, behavior and values. This is always valuable.

So much of what I'm doing for school is entertwined with work, and we all know that blogging about work is a very, very bad idea. So I can't write much these days. I can, however, recommend some books from what I've read so far for class and supplementally. If you're thinking about doing this program, read these books:

Leadership and Spirit - Moxley
When things fall apart -Chodron
The Corporation - Bakan
Leading Change - O'Brien
Working with Emotional Intelligence - Goleman
Flawed Advice and the Management Trap - Argyris (this is mega-dense, but a good foundation for critical thinking)