Leading from the Next Level
A new class, designed with the founders of the immensely powerful Organization & Relationship Systems Coaching program (CRR Global), will be offered by ACI starting in November 2012!
Leading from the Next Level: Systems-Oriented Leadership™ for Agile Coaches (register now)
Agile coaches are a new kind of leader! With the old “command and control” mindset thoroughly discredited, a new framework is needed. The appropriate leadership paradigm for the age of complexity is a systems-oriented one which sees from the whole and stewards the authentic movement of the system rather than the opinions of the vocal.
This systems-oriented leadership is ideal for agile coaches and agile leaders, aligning as it does with collaborative leadership and a process-oriented focus. The new approach reveals a leader’s responsibility for the container rather than the content, for eliciting and catalyzing vision rather than driving or forcing one, for safeguarding the ability for every voice to be heard in service of gaining a complete perspective, and for creating environments of positivity that foster risk-taking, authenticity and creation.
The fundamental competency of this approach is Relationship Systems Intelligence™ (RSI) – pioneered by CRR Global. Some specific RSI-enabled competencies of systems oriented leadership include:
- Ability to reinterpret the self through systemic experience, seeing oneself (and others) as a voice of the system (for instance, seeing your team and its “complainers” as voices of the system that need to be heard)
- Holding the needs of the entire system, including helping to reveal what is true for stakeholders, the delivery team, and management in search of better solutions
- Knowing that leadership is a role of the system – rather than a personal position or permanent structure – this creates openness to influence, power sharing and the application of collective intelligence
- Fostering co-responsibility and peer accountability, wherein team members are responsible for each other’s success and failure and courageously hold each other accountable
Leading from the Next Level will explore these competencies, focusing on a fundamental mindset shift and basic skill development within the agile coaching context. For example, we will explore ways to increase team productivity by leveraging an RSI view of toxic communications patterns, conflict, and ways to increase team positivity through authentic appreciations and the use of conflict protocols. On the organizational level, how can the organization actually be agile, not just give lip service to it? Here we will work with ways to make room for all perspectives, to focus on alignment rather than agreement, and to look for what is trying to evolve within the web of relationships, rather than for ‘who is doing what to whom.’
Specific learning outcomes include:
- Understanding the importance of creating an atmosphere of positivity on your team and within your organization, and how to use authentic appreciation while avoiding toxic communication styles
- Understanding the basics of deep democracy and inquiry/advocacy processes for empowering self-organization
- Learning techniques to facilitate and catalyze change, looking for and nurturing movements in the system that indicate the need to evolve to a new level of organization
- Ways to embrace and navigate conflict, leveraging conflict protocols and holding conflict as a positive change urge within a system, rather than something to be “managed”
- Experience reading and articulating the emotional field, giving voice to the system’s experience in real time (leading to increased team emotional intelligence)
- A basic understanding of navigating levels of reality, flowing from base essence/urge, to visioning, to practicalities (this understanding alone can help resolve conflicts between your team and stakeholders)
We hope you will join us for this exciting new class! To register, click here.
Take note of Prerequisites: In order to take Leading from the Next Level you must have taken one of the following:
- The Coaching Stance class
- CAT Integration – our new 6-week teleclass for those who have previously taken the Coaching Agile Teams class
- Other professional coach training will be considered (e.g., Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals, ORSC Fundamentals, etc.) – please contact us for approval