BUILDING LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY

PRE-SESSION WORK

Prior to arriving in Barcelona, we will ask you to complete a set of pre-work to better help us customize the program to your specific, and individualized needs, and for you to better set targeted objectives that will guide you through the experience, as well.

Through a series of one-on-one interviews and assessments, we will explore:

1. What success in the program will look like for you.

2. What specific challenges and problems you face as a current and future leader.

3. How you would like to be held accountable throughout the program by us, your peers, and your self. And heck, even your organization.

4. We will even begin the process of helping you start constructing a leadership narrative (what’s that, you say? Better come to find out!) as you start to work on moving that accountability needle.

TWO, IN-PERSON EVENTS

1. KICK-OFF: The overall program will begin with a live, in-person kick-off in Barcelona, Spain. You will arrive and that evening meet your fellow cohort members over a wonderful meal and through several networking activities. You will also have a chance to meet all four instructors. Then, the next day, we will spend a day together exploring WHAT IS LEADERSHIP. We will share best-practice perspectives, but also explore your own specific contexts and how the 9-month experience will support you as you work to fulfill your own, custom learning objectives throughout the process. And, as it is always about food, we will close the gathering with another meal and team activity— beginning to build our learning community.

2. CLOSE: We will return together nine months later for another in-person event. This location will be determined in advance by you and your colleagues. We will debrief the experience. We will explore how you can continue to evolve and grow post-experience. And more importantly, we will evaluate your perceived, and your actual readiness to apply those leadership lessons in practice.

OFFICE HOURS

Each month, each of the four instructors will have scheduled office hours to support you throughout the process. You will also be able to set up time, any time you need outside those scheduled hours, as well.

REFLECTION, DEBRIEF, & DISCUSSION SESSIONS

Each month, we will schedule a 60 minute session for the entire cohort to come together, reflect and discuss how their projects fare, issues that arise in real life, questions they have, and more. Learning requires lots of reflection and these sessions are kick-starters for that process.

MONTHLY LEARNING SESSIONS, LIVE AND ONLINE

Each month, we will meet for 90 minutes to explore a specific topic related to leadership in organizations. These sessions are designed to kick-start you with a grounded understanding of the topic, that we will then support you in customizing (through the coaching process) to apply in your own contexts. Sessions include:

1. Problems… Problems… Problems…: We keep referencing the complexity of what must be led. That many of the issues you face can feel overwhelming, impossible, and even scary. That’s where the work of the great Keith Grint comes into the picture. Keith has a wonderful model about the different types of problems we face in organizations. And that one type of problem requires leadership. This session will get into the nuance about those wicked problems and the leadership approach to take.

2. Self-Determined Leadership: Explores how can we, as leaders provide the structure, the purpose & meaning, and the sense of belonging for our followers as we engage teams toward solving complex or wicked problems (or opportunities)— and unleash the power of discretionary.

3. Organizational Learning: Hey— this is a leadership program? Why are we talking about learning? Because leadership is ultimately about solving complex problems or realizing complex opportunities. Organizational learning is how we leverage the company as a system for continuous learning to better equip ourselves, increase efficiency, and maximize the likelihood for success.

4. Systems Thinking: How do we do that? By getting leaders— you— to think about cause and effect. To get you to explore nuance and how all these different factors come together to get you where you are and where you are going.

5. Action Learning: Again… with that learning thing…? Yep! This is about working with your peers to solve problems and commit to new behaviors. This is also about building practice and reflection into what you do. Why? So, you can find what works and what doesn’t as quickly as you can. So you can put into practice solutions, adjusting them as needed. Action learning is all about being agile and nimble is a complex world.

6. Change Leadership: Unfortunately, we are too often burdened by those pesky humans who must, or better yet, willingly, follow leaders. To get them aligned… and to get them so in a more intrinsic way— a self-determined way— we must put change management practices in place. This session provides such processes. Because emotions matter.

7. Organizational Politics: Politics is defined really as two or more people “in a room.” Politics is agnostic. It is essential. It is how we humans engage. By itself, it is neither good, nor bad. But it certainly can yield bad things and be amoral, or moral. In other words, there is an ethical component to politics. This session looks at the more Machiavellian side of the leadership algorithm.

SMALL GROUP PROJECT: The €6MM Game

Participants will work in smaller teams of four, Each team will be asked to pick a representative organization from one of their team members that will allow them to work on a project. If no one on the team can bring a company into the fold for this project, we can provide one. In other words, this activity is truly action learning! The team will have to identify a project within the organization that will ultimately yield a net of €6MM in either revenue gain or cost reduction. Teams will be coached by one of the faculty throughout the process and will turn over their real-life project to someone inside the organization to complete it (since most large-scale initiatives like this cannot be completed in under. nine months. This process is tried and true, and the instructors have used it many, many times leading to both great learning opportunities, and also positive outcomes for the organization. The key is to put contextual leadership into practice.

INDIVIDUAL WORK

Each of you will also be asked to take on a solo project within your own organizations (again, if impossible, we will provide a context for you). Your project will exist within the flow of your current, daily job. It must meet certain criteria to qualify as a BUILDING LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY project. And, you will work with one of the instructors as your coach and mentor throughout the process. As with the small group project, the key is to continue to practice and develop, but this time, using your personal context as the platform for growth.

COACHING/ MENTORING

We have alluded to it already, but we want to highlight that you will be assigned one of the faculty as a coach/ mentor. One of us will work and support you individually. And one of us will work and support your small group initiative, as well.

VIDEO CONTENT LIBRARY

There are many areas of content you will need to immerse yourself in as you go through this program. So, we will also provide you with a resource library, containing plenty of videos and associated job aids, tools, references, etc.

WHAT ELSE?

If anything pops up for you and you feel something isn’t there… that there is something missing for you, tell us! We will endeavor to make it so for you.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

1. Chief Executives

2. Senior Executives

3. Executives identified in succession plans

4. Senior managers ready for promotion to executive roles

WHERE?

1. Kick-off is in Barcelona Spain

2. Subsequent sessions are live, online using Circle and Glowbl

3. The Closing session will be in-person in a location determined by the cohort approximately 9 months later

WHEN?

1. Kick-Off will take place November 7, 2023.

2. We will use Doodle with the cohort to determine the other sessions and times (this is to accommodate the specific needs, timezones, and considerations of the specific participants

3. Close will take place September 10, 2024 (we will skip July and August due to vacation schedules)

COST?

€8000

Travel and associated costs are up to the participant.

Fee includes all onsite food DURING scheduled sessions.