Design Thinking as a Resource in Decolonizing Education

Postcolonial nations are still grappling with deep-seated concerns of epistemic and testimonial injustice stemming from colonial legacies.

In this essay, we will look at how design thinking may be used as a hermeneutic resource to solve these inequalities. We will investigate how the educational system frequently encourages students' beliefs that they are not knowers and cannot actively participate to knowledge creation or problem-solving processes. Furthermore, we will examine how learning design thinking may be used to modify this testimonial injustice.

We will also look at Ronald Heifetz's adaptive challenge paradigm and how decolonizing the educational system is a major adaptive challenge for postcolonial societies. We shall argue that offering courses, social labs, and other learning platforms is beneficial.

III. Decolonizing Education as an Adaptive Challenge

Ronald Heifetz's Adaptive Challenge Framework: Ronald Heifetz's framework distinguishes between technical and adaptive challenges. Decolonizing education in postcolonial societies is undoubtedly an adaptive challenge, as it requires a fundamental shift in attitudes, values, and systems. This involves reevaluating existing power structures and addressing deeply ingrained historical injustices.

The Role of Design Thinking in Decolonization: Design thinking can serve as a catalyst for decolonizing education. By providing courses, social labs, and certifications in design thinking, educational institutions can offer spaces for critical reflection, dialogue, and practical problem-solving that challenge existing paradigms and power dynamics.

Learning Platforms for Decolonization: Offering courses and social labs in design thinking allows students and educators to engage in co-creative processes that actively challenge colonial legacies. These platforms provide opportunities for the reevaluation of curricula, the integration of indigenous knowledge systems, and the fostering of inclusive learning environments.

I. The Prevalence of Epistemic and Testimonial Injustice in Postcolonial Societies

Historical Context: Postcolonial societies often inherit educational systems that were designed to reinforce the superiority of colonial knowledge and cultures. Indigenous epistemologies and perspectives were marginalized or erased, perpetuating epistemic injustice.

Hierarchical Pedagogy: Many postcolonial educational systems adopt a hierarchical pedagogical approach, where students are positioned as passive recipients of knowledge rather than active participants in the production of knowledge. This approach contributes to testimonial injustice by diminishing students' sense of agency.

Problematic Narratives: Dominant educational narratives can foster testimonial injustice by suggesting that only certain voices or groups possess the expertise required to solve complex societal problems. This discourages students from seeing themselves as potential problem solvers.

II. The Transformative Potential of Design Thinking

Empowering Student Agency: Design thinking emphasizes a student-centered, problem-solving approach that empowers learners to actively engage in identifying, analyzing, and addressing complex issues. It encourages students to see themselves as problem solvers and knowledge producers, thereby challenging testimonial injustice.

Inclusive and Diverse Perspectives: Design thinking values diverse perspectives and promotes inclusivity by recognizing the unique insights that individuals from various backgrounds can bring to problem-solving. This inclusivity counters epistemic injustice by acknowledging the validity of different knowledge systems.

Iterative and Practical Learning: Design thinking fosters an iterative process of learning and problem-solving, where students are encouraged to learn from failure and adapt their approaches. This challenges the notion of static knowledge and positions students as active agents in shaping solutions to real-world problems.

Conclusion

Design thinking stands as a hermeneutic resource to address epistemic and testimonial injustices in postcolonial societies. It empowers students to see themselves as knowers and problem solvers, while also promoting inclusivity, diverse perspectives, and iterative learning. Decolonizing the educational system is an adaptive challenge that demands a fundamental shift in thinking and practices. Providing courses, social labs, and certifications in design thinking offers a practical pathway toward decolonization, as it facilitates critical dialogue and empowers individuals to challenge colonial legacies in education. In this way, design thinking can play a pivotal role in reversing epistemic and testimonial injustices and forging a more equitable and inclusive postcolonial educational landscape.

Coaching City Leaders and Bureaucrats on Adaptive Leadership

 

When it comes to leadership in a city hall bureaucracy, many assume that the traditional hierarchical approach is the only way to go. But in today's rapidly changing world, this rigid structure may no longer be the best way to lead. That's where adaptive leadership comes in. 

Adaptive leadership is a style of leadership that focuses on empowering individuals and organizations to adapt and change to address complex problems. It's a mindset that highlights collaboration, innovation, and flexibility to complement top-down authority. In today's dynamic urban landscape, it's more important than ever to cultivate this kind of leadership among city leaders.

Working Across Departmental Silos

One of the biggest challenges faced by city governments is working across departmental silos. Many departments have their own agendas, budgets, and goals, which can create barriers to collaboration and communication. To overcome these barriers, adaptive leaders need to be skilled at building bridges between departments, breaking down barriers, and jointly creating public value. Adaptive leaders can facilitate cross-departmental collaboration by creating a culture of open communication, establishing shared goals, and emphasizing the importance of teamwork. Leaders can also promote the use of technology and data to create a more collaborative environment and encourage sharing best practices between departments.

Equipping Millennials and Gen Z to Thrive within Traditional Hierarchical Offices

City governments are increasingly being staffed by Millennials and Gen Z employees, who enter the workforce with different expectations and priorities than their predecessors. Being digital natives, these young public servants see the world as connected, dynamic, technology-enabled, and full of possibilities. 

Adaptive leaders need to be aware that these perspectives are likely to clash with traditional bureaucratic cultures in some city hall departments. Adaptive leaders can proactively equip Millennials and Gen Z staff to operate on dual modes, enabling them to survive office politics by code-shifting between hierarchical culture and power dynamics, while at the same time retaining the optimistic and innovative digital-first mindsets that they grew up with. 

Leveraging the Innovation Capacity of Local Universities 

City colleges are a valuable resource for city governments, offering a wealth of talent and expertise in various fields. With thousands of students doing academic projects - all connected to the latest ideas through online learning resources - adaptive leaders can leverage this human capital by forging partnerships with city colleges to create research partnerships, joint prototyping, internships, mentorships, and industry-academe partnerships. 

By working with local universities, city governments can gain access to cutting-edge research and technology, as well as a pipeline of talented young professionals. Adaptive leaders can also encourage the development of entrepreneurship and innovation programs at city colleges, which can cultivate a sense of civic engagement and democratic values among the young citizens.

Synergizing with Business Leaders

City governments and business leaders have a shared interest in the economic prosperity of the city. Adaptive leaders can leverage this shared interest by forging partnerships with business leaders to promote economic development and job creation. Fostering collaboration between the department heads and businessmen may also unlock innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to problem-solving at city hall. A Startup-in Residence program may also produce local solution-providers. 

Futures Thinking: My City 2050

Discussions on future scenarios of a city in 2040 or 2050 can help enrich discourse and reframe conversations beyond short- to medium-term managerial and firefighting concerns by providing a long-term vision that can guide decision-making and policy development. These discussions can also help generate new ideas and perspectives on how to address current challenges and shape the future of the city.

Life Purpose and Work at City Hall

Discussing the life purpose of individual public servants can help deepen and broaden leadership conversations in several ways. It can introduce more perspectives into coaching conversations, allowing coaches and leaders to better understand the motivations and values that drive the behavior of public servants. This understanding can help leaders better connect with their employees and create a more positive and supportive work environment.

Discussing life purpose can also help leaders understand how their employees' personal and professional goals intersect. When leaders have a deeper understanding of their employees' motivations and aspirations, they can work to align organizational goals with individual goals, creating a more engaged and motivated workforce. This can lead to increased productivity, higher job satisfaction, and reduced turnover.

Employee Relations and Flourishing of their Families

Parenting and household roles are an integral part of an employee's life, and that supporting employees in this role is essential for their well-being and productivity. This means creating policies and practices that accommodate the needs of working parents, such as flexible working hours, parental leave, and childcare support.

Low-income and contractual city hall personnel (such as street sweepers and garbage collectors) may also be engaged to actively cultivate the hopes of their children. Introducing conversations like Family Vision Boards and futures thinking will help their households thrive and prosper within the city.

Climate Action and Energy Transition

Leaders need to mobilize their constituents for climate action. This means developing a clear vision for the city's future and identifying strategies that can help the city reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, including doable actions at the household, school, firm and community levels.

Leading Upwards: City x National Leadership

Engaging bureaucrats and politicians outside of the city may be critical for strategies such as redistricting, large investments, long-term infrastructure projects, and other structural changes that influence the city. Effective leadership in this context requires a combination of strategic thinking, collaboration skills, and a deep understanding of the political landscape beyond the city.

Image credits: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/uploads/images/2022/10/03/385561.jpg

Loob and Leadership 1 - Abot Malay

Mariel is a mid-twenties development professional who is a part-time student enrolled in a Masters in Public Administration program. She recently bumped into the mayor of her city on the street and had a brief chat on the policies guiding bikers during the pandemic. 

https://www.facebook.com/uy.mariel/posts/5387272374619867

Father Bert Alejo gives an interesting unpacking of Filipino Psychology and describes loob in terms of "abot malay" (extent of awareness), "abot dama" (extent of empathy), "abot kaya" (extent of agency). 

The act of Mayor Francis Zamora's chatting with Mariel may be thought of leadership education in terms of the psychological development of the citizenry. "Leaders, followers, and those who aspire to serve others need to develop perspective for self within the group and organizational context. Specifically, the following constructs, the development of capacity for them, and their broad based contextualization provide a powerful foundation for the learner." (Andenoro et al, 2013) 

Leadership in Fragmented Bureaucratic Systems

Leadership in public health issues can be challenging especially when tackling complex health issues such as suicide prevention, tuberculosis, or drug rehabilitation.

One approach is to look at more sophisticated, well-resourced government health systems and try to replicate the bureaucratic forms that they have. Just as Prof.Kotter describes below, Technical Working Groups, Joint Task Forces, Commissions and other coordinative bodies may work for a while, but begin to weigh down the organizational systems.   

In countries with lower resource levels, there can be recognized bureaucratic gaps, or there may be non-functioning coordinating mechanisms which could be more difficult to address. Matt Andrews discusses how authorizations can be fragmented.


Fragmented and Dysfunctional Bureaucracy from BSC on Vimeo.

Research Agenda 2019-2025

BL and New Power
Leadership for Scaleup and Endgame
Faith-based leadership
Sector- and Inter-sectoral leadership
Social Media-enabled Leadership
Leadership in Transitions
Liminality/Thresholds
Glocal Leadership
Technology and Leadership Development
Discourse and Conversation Leadership
Nodal governance
Climate change and nested leadership
Institutional innovation
Leadership across class and Race
Leadership Education
Populism
Academic Supremacy, Brand-building, and Public Leadership

Indigenizing Adaptive Leadership for the Philippines and other Asian Cultures

Leadership is not easy to teach or learn. The theory and teaching methods of Adaptive Leader evolved at the Harvard Kennedy School in a multicultural classroom of highly motivated, analytical, students of leadership. This has allowed the theory to evolve at a high level of abstraction that is generalizable to different countries.

There is room to add value in the following ways:
1. Indigenize to country-, culture-, and sector-specific settings, where powerful narratives of colonialism, class, ethnicity, and authority are unnamed and disempowering factors.
2. Develop culture-based heuristic devices to unpack complex adaptive leadership concepts accessible. Translation Science

This blog and podcast series attempt to translate and indigenize concepts in adaptive leadership for the Philippine setting. When possible, it uses the approach of indigenization from within as proposed by Enriquez (1977)  This entails the following processes: 1.identification of key indigenous concepts, methods, and theories; 2. Semantic elaboration; 3) Indigenous codification or re-codification; 4. Systematization/Explication of implied theoretical frameworks; 5. Application/Use

A series of sector-based elaboration will also be attempted, starting with the health and agriculture sectors. For sector-based translations, indigenous health and agricultural concepts shall be translated.


Concepts

1. That Thing Called Tadhana
2. Hiya Culture
3. Ampalaya Conversations
4. Hugot
5. Archetypes
6. Utang na Loob and Unspeakable Loyalties
7. Domination, Class Structure, Pagmamaliit
8. Tsinelas Leadership and Boundary-spanning Techniques
9. Dedma, Walang Paki, Sori na Lang, Cognitive Distancing, and Empathy and Class Distancing.
10. Faith and Perspectives on Poverty (Ruth Callanta)
11. Kalooban, Palabas, and Panlabas
12. Kapwa
13. Walang "K" and Internal Racism
14. Wala sa Lugar
15. Trabaho lang, Walang Personalan
16. English only Please: Colonialism, Dependency, and the Third Story
17. Libre ang Mangarap: Public Narratives
18. Archetypes
19. Bagani
20. Familism
21. Duality and Taskus Be Ridiculous
22. Tsinelas Leadership 
23. Sir Maam and Power Dynamics
24. Walang Pinag-aralan and Wisdom
25. Changing Channels as Getting on the Balcony
26. Pagpapahinog
27. KalyeSerya and Living Leadership Labs
28. Iwas Pusoy and Work Avoidance
29. Adaptive and Generative Governance
30. CYNEFIN simple, kumplikado, labu-labo, masalimuot
31. Shadism and internal racism in Philippines
32. "May pinagdadaanan" as translation of "adaptive change" 
33. Hiya as a deterrent to deviation, adaptive work, and leadership
34. Hiya used to discourage, reduce courage or buo and lakas ng loob

35. Friend Zone similar to Hiya Zone
36. May K(arapatan), walang K; May G(umagawa), Walang G
37. Neurophysiology of Leadership
https://wsb.wisc.edu/faculty-research/forward-thinking-faculty-blog/2016/06/15/understanding-the-chemicals-of-leadership-and-the-impact-they-can-have
38. Adaptive change as May Pinagdadaanan
39. Adaptive Iteration as Talon, Madapa, Pagpag, Matuto, Talon uli
40. Walang K as Leadership/Initiative-Shaming...and Epidemic of Walang K
41. Weak institutions is like osteoporosis or Brittle-bones disease, decision makers take fewer risks.
42. Pseudo ownership (atik-atik/dili tinuod, MEMAsabi), conditional ownership (ipapaalam muna da boss), true non-ownership (diretsaham na ayaw), temporary ownership (feel na feel pero lilipas ang pag ako), true ownership (may hugot at gagawan ng paraan), mandate-based ownership (ito KPI namin). Compare vs Jocanos multiple uses of "yes" in Filipino language.

Sources:

Enriquez, Virgilio G., Filipino Psychology in the Third World, Department of Psychology University of the Philippines,  Philippine Journal of Psychology, Vol.10, p.3-18, 1971.

http://116.50.242.171/PSSC/index.php/pjp01/article/viewFile/34/34

Soriano, Elmer. S, Adaptive Leadership-Bridging Leadership Translation

http://www.adaptiveleadership.civika.com/home/resources/al-bl--dictionary 

Adaptive Problem Archetypes in Filipino Culture

Table 1: Agriculture Adaptive Problem Archetypes

Type	English	Filipino	Case
1	disowning problem	Paglaglag ng kapatid	Nabaha at nasira ang tanim ng magsasaka sa Mindanao. Hindi ko na problema yan
2	conflicting values and behavior	Naghiwalay na puso at kamay	Inipit yung cash advance pambili ng abono
3	unspeakables/elephant in the room	Anino na ayaw pagusapan	Agri supplier ng munisipyo si Mayor
4	work avoidance	Iniiwasan ng arinola	malnutrition sa mga GIDA at Indigenous Communities
5	conflicting commitments	Pinagsabong na magkapatid	Department or Agriculture-Department of Environmentpseudo conflict
6	penny smart, pound foolish	Tinubigan na gatas ng bata	Nag publish ng Ingles na Farmer's manual dahil mahal magpa translate
7	myths/widely held beliefs, cultural blind spots	Malawakang maling paniniwala	Katutubo na komunidad na walang pakialam sa kalusugan

References: Heifetz (200_)

Table 2: Health Sector Adaptive Challenges Archetypes

Type	English	Filipino	Case
1	disowning problem	Paglaglag ng kapatid	Namatay sa district hospital, di ko na problema yan
2	conflicting values and behavior	Naghiwalay na puso at kamay	Inipit yung cash advance ng ambulansya
3	unspeakables/elephant in the room	Anino na ayaw pagusapan	Botika ni Dok sa tapat ng ospital
4	work avoidance	Iniiwasan ng arinola	Maternal care in GIDA island brgys
5	conflicting commitments	Pinagsabong na magkapatid	DOH-PHIC pseudo conflict
6	penny smart, pound foolish	Tinubigan na gatas ng bata	Oversubsidizing hospital
7	myths/widely held beliefs, cultural blind spots	Malawakang maling paniniwala	IP walang pakialam sa kalusugan

References: Heifetz (200_)Archetypes

Fractal Learning

by Elmer S Soriano

A fractal is a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern displayed at every scale.^[1] It is also known as expanding symmetry or evolving symmetry. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

I tried a highly fractal learning curriculum recently, where the patterns kept repeating at larger scales. Here's what I did:

I meet with four learners who were a subset of a bigger cohort of 50 learners in a leadership course. These learners were supposed to learn to be coaches, so I embedded a mini-coaching training within the broader 2-day course.

Day 1
Session 1 1030-12nn - I meet with the coaches and have Coaching Conversation Package A, where we discussed: 1) Life Purpose; 2) Preferred Future for 2017, and 3) get on the Balcony to discuss what and how we learned in 1 and 2. I give them instructions to similarly have Coaching Conversation Package A with a selected coachee over lunch. Since I am coaching them, let's refer to myself as Coach Level 1, and them as Coach Level 2.

Session 2 12nn-130 - Over lunch, the Coach Level 2 have Coaching Conversation Package A with a selected coachee. 

Session 3  1 130pm-230pm - After lunch, I meet with them again do get on the balcony and discuss what and how they learned as Coach Level 2. I show them a short video on Efren Penaflorida on multi-level leadership coaching and show them that we had 3 generations of learners since 1030am.

Day 2
Session 4  1030-12 nn - I show the same team another video by Joy Mateo of how narratives can engage people in repeating stories of empowerment. I instruct Coach Level 2s to organize a lunch conversation, where their coachees (Level 3) conduct Coaching Conversation Package A with a practice coachee.

Session 5 12-nn-1:30  Coach Level 3 conducts Coaching Conversation Package A, while Coach Level 2 is a process observer.

Session 6 - 1:30-230pm We get on the Balcony and analyze our learning methodology over the past 2 days. I point out features of Case-in-point that we did in multiple scales. I challenge them to coach their Level 2 coaches to similarly coach a Parent Leader.      

The Balcony Channel: Leadership by Changing a Group's Channel of Awareness

by Elmer S Soriano

Developing leaders requires not just the buildup of their toolkit or competencies, but  also shifting their Level of Consciousness (O'Brian, 2016; Scharmer 20__). The next challenge is explaining these concepts to an audience that did not have college education. 

I attempted to translate the concepts by likening them to channels on cable TV, pointing out the different units of analyses provided by the different channels.

Channel 1: The Selfie Channel - The percieving the world thru one's own self-centered worldview.
Channel 2: The Discovery/Science Channel - Interpreting the world primarily through science.
Channel 3: The Oprah/Empathy Channel - Interpreting the world through the Other person's worldview
Channel 4: The Balcony/Reality TV Director's Channel - Interpreting the world by observing emergence.


http://www.ottoscharmer.com/sites/default/files/2000_Presencing.pdf
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27112706/OBRIEN-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf?sequence=1

Social Impact Bonds: Changing the Rules of Health Financing

by Elmer S. Soriano MD

Grant funding for community development work has been significantly reduced in the Philippines, and the controversies around NGO scams have left both NGOs and government extremely paranoid about partnerships.

A forum on Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) was recently hosted by the Ateneo Economics Department to discuss SIBs as a potential mechanism for transferring funds to service providers including NGOs under a highly transparent and performance-based agreement. Funding would come initially from impact investors, rather than government.

 ASA Philippines Foundation, a micro-finance organization recently introduced a 2B Php Bond, pushing the frontiers of development financing in the Philippines. Though this is not strictly a SIB, the ASA bond already contains both the capital-raising and social development functions of SIBs.

A white paper entitled Scaling Tuberculosis Treatment thru a Social Impact Bond (Eddy, 2012) will be discussed in future  blog posts.

Sources: 

www.siblab.civika.com  

http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/02/05/1669077/micro-finance-ngo-issuing-p2-b-bonds 

http://www.instiglio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Instiglio-White-Paper-Tuberculosis-Social-Impact-Bond.pdf

Leadership, Presencing, and That Thing Called Tadhana

by Elmer S Soriano

"Tadhana" is an old Filipino word that means fate or nature. Recently, the 2014 romatic comedy movie That Thing Called Tadhana made the term fresh and popular again. These days, tadhana connotes recognition of an emerging future and the need to move past old feelings, memories, and prisons (as Scharmer would call them) and operate from an openness to one's highest positive tadhana.

Which makes "tadhana" resemble "presencing". According to Scharmer, presencing means:

"liberating one’s perception from the “prison” of the past and then letting it operate from the field of the future. This means that you literally shift the place from which your perception operates to another vantage point. In practical terms, presencing means that you link yourself in a very real way with your “highest future possibility” and that you let it come into the present. Presencing is always relevant when past-driven reality no longer brings you forward, and when you have the feeling that you have to begin again on a completely new footing in order to progress...I use the presencing approach to facilitate profound innovation and change processes both within companies and across societal systems."

http://www.ottoscharmer.com/sites/default/files/2002_ScharmerInterview_us.pdf

Now it might seem a stretch to liken a theory of social evolution with a romantic comedy theme, but then again, the intention is to popularize the understanding of leadership theories by looking for similar terms in the vernacular. In the movie, the girl struggles to liberate herself from her attachment to her past boyfriend. The boy journeys with her and challenges her to open herself up to the emerging future, instead of clinging to the past.

In societies burdened by class structures, marginalization of the poor, leaders need to similarly invite others to open themselves to get past their history and perhaps even identities anchored on poverty.

The video below shows how a social worker Jo Mateo uses stories to invite poor farmers to work toward a more liberating tadhana narrative. Through her story, she articulates how structural barriers and social exclusion are realities which will perpetuate poverty (choosing karit scenario), and how responding/pursuing a positive tadhana (choosing panulat) allows poor farmers to liberate themselves from poverty, first through their dreams, and then through their daily actions choosing (presencing) to respond to the call of their preferred tadhana.

Image credits: https://presencing.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Screen%20Shot%202013-11-04%20at%203.37.04%20PM.png?itok=38580jfY

Leadership as Ripening and Chunking

by Elmer S Soriano

“Rushing into action, you fail.

Trying to grasp things, you lose them.

Forcing a project to completion,

you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action

by letting things take their course.

He remains as calm at the end 

as at the beginning...

He simply reminds people

of who they have always been...” 

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu seems to have been describing "chunking" and "ripening".

Chunking or chunk formation is a concept from the learning sciences that has wide applicability in the leadership sciences.

What is chunking?
'Chunking' refers to organizing or grouping separate pieces of information together. When information is 'chunked' into groups, you can remember the information easier by remembering the groups as opposed to each piece of information separately. The types of groups can also act as a cue to help you remember what is in each group. 

How to chunk information
There are several ways to chunk information. Chunking techniques include grouping, finding patterns, and organizing. The technique you use to chunk will depend on the information you are chunking. Sometimes more than one technique will be possible but with some practice and insight it will be possible to determine which technique will work best for you.
Source: http://www.skillstoolbox.com/career-and-education-skills/learning-skills/effective-learning-strategies/chunking/

Chunking has something to do with synapses and short-term memory at the neurophysiologic level, and has a lot to do with individual and group cognition from the leadership perspective.

At the group cognition level, Heifetz cites Fisher (1980) on Small Group Dynamics , and uses the term "ripening the issue" as another way of describing the emergent and collective chunking.

An issue is ripe when the urgency to deal with it has been generalized across the system. If only a subgroup or faction cares passionately, but most other groups in the system have other priorities in their mind, then the issue is not yet ripe. Determining ripeness is critical because a strategy of intervention to ripen an issue that is only localized is different from a strategy to deal with a ripe issue that is already generalized. (Heifetz, 2009) 

The Art of Hosting, Deep Dive for Design Thinking, and booksprint are forms of generative dialogue that facilitate the emergence of individual and group chunks within groups. The 1957 movie 12 Angry Men is an excellent learning resource for learning the emergent dynamics of chunking and ripening.

Sources:

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World by Ronald Abadian Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Martin Linsky p.126

http://thenewagemovement.com/main/wp-content/uploads/Heifetz.NotesOnGroupDynamics.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLHWgQ0cHk
Fisher, R. Aubrey, Small Group Decision Making, 2nd Edition,   McGraw‐Hill 1980
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3f/c2/23/3fc223d45d3fad8aaefb983ed3f59226.jpg

Dramaturgy: Improv, Emergence and Leadership as Experience Design

by Elmer S Soriano

All the world's a stage, 

And all the men and women merely players; 

They have their exits and their entrances, 

And one man in his time plays many parts. 

                        -William Shakespeare

Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama (Wikipedia)... and this concept has been used by Goffman, Ganz and Pine in the context of leadership.

Basically, the idea is that humans can see themselves as part of an unfolding real-world drama, and a leader can influence this unfolding story by providing alternative interpretations. Robert Kennedy did this masterfully in his April 1968 speech where he proposed an alternative perspective on the MLK assassination. Adichie talks about the Danger of a Single Story and why leaders need to intervene by providing multiple interpretations of the world's emerging stories. Campbell alludes to leadership as the process of inviting others to participate in their own Heroes Journey.   

Teaching Cases/Videos:

Actions are Illegal, Never People: Jose Antonio Vargas 

Our Return on Investment: Sabsy Ongkiko

Jo Mateo Public Narrative

Sources and Image Credits:

http://www.lovelydenver.com/components/com_biz/models/images/upload/2145683706_Improv-Comedy-Club-denver.jpg 

https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Economy-Updated-Joseph-Pine/dp/1422161978

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy