Wednesday
Breakfast Session
8:00 - 8:50
Literature and Film. Too often the bookstores are full of quick-fix books on leadership with catchy titles but full of surface concepts. However, if we look around just a little more we can discover powerful leadership lessons in film and literature that will have meaning and help us understand in our own life how to lead and solve organizational problems. The answers often lie within us and film and literature help bring them out. Suggestion – you might read the short children’s classic The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery prior to this breakfast.
Leadership and Diversity
9:00 - 9:50
Summary
In this segment we explore the issues of diversity in leadership and in organizations. We use as one method to get at this discussion a Harvard Business Review article that explores the labyrinth that women can face in leading modern organizations.
Background Reading
• Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership (Alice Eagly and Linda Carli – Harvard Business Review Packet).
• The Leadership Authenticity of Carli Fiorina (Gordon Whitehead)
• Historical excerpt from Charles Lenox Redmond from 1842 on equality.
Course Materials
• Video vignette: Excerpts from Not For Ourselves Alone, the story of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Integrating Activity
Open discussion on diversity, the consequence of not being diverse, and the challenge of getting to a diverse state.
Leading for Effective and Sustainable Change
10:00 - 3:30
Summary
This workshop is conducted by our Guest from Nike. In this segment you will unravel the secrets to sustainable change and business alignment. This is a workshop and each attendee will work through a specific change management problem they are either facing or will potentially face. Understanding the role of a leader, the nature of how we should engage agents for change, and the true impact of change on people will be explored in detail.
Jerris Marr is a Senior Director within Nike’s technology organization. He has over 17 years of leadership experience across a wide range of organizations at Nike. Over these many years he has led large organizations supporting Nike’s Information Security operations, Global HR operations and technology solutions, Global Distributions Systems (WMS), as well as leading all IT functions for subsidiary brands Cole Haan and Hurley. Jerris has a proven history as a leader of change and growth in the areas of information technology, customer service, and operations, with an emphasis on organizational transformations and program management.
Prior to his time working with Nike, Jerris served 7 years in the United States Marine Corps. He held leadership positions throughout his time in the Marines, including while deployed to Saudia Arabia in support of operations Desert Shield/Storm. Throughout his Marine Corps career Jerris received numerous personals awards for his leadership.
This segment has a working lunch built in.
Background Reading
• How Nike’s CEO Shook Up the Shoe Industry
Integrating Activity
Begin plans for change architecture in your organization in a way that aligns with business, leverages talent in the organization, and produces greater and lasting value.
The Cain Mutiny
Issues with Being Second in Charge
4:00 - 5:45
Summary
In this segment we explore what happens when a gap in understanding and common agenda occurs between leader and follower. We also explore what a subordinate leader can do to help the organization be successful and survive a difficult leader. We also examine what actions a subordinate leader might take when faced with a lose-lose, or “bad order” from the top that will hurt the organization in a major way.
Background Reading
• The Underside of Command (Gordon Whitehead)
Course Materials
• Video: The Caine Mutiny (A 1954 American drama set during WWII starring Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray. The film is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Cain Mutiny. The film depicts a mutiny aboard the fictitious Navy ship and subsequent court martial of two officers. A multitude of ethical issues and complex leadership problems are explored in this film.
Integrating Activity
Identify what leads a leader to bad decisions. Identify what your role as a subordinate leader is. Discuss how you will react when faced with a lose-lose dilemma as the subordinate leader.
