The development and implementation of Leadership University and the schools, departments or divisions within it offers a wonderful opportunity to integrate theory and practice in extending and integrating coaching skills with other disciplines and perspectives. Here is a preliminary offering on what one of those schools might provide.

Central to the core curriculum of Leadership University is an approach to business and executive coaching that integrates a myriad of disciplines, some traditional, some more cutting edge. I propose extending and focusing this work on leadership development.

Leadership development has a common foundation with the coaching approach offered through Leadership University. Fundamentally, this is about emotional intelligence and similar ideas such as resilience, as well as their application in the work of Gallop and other leadership development programs. The coaching program also provides important preliminary introduction to even more innovative concepts and theories such as spiral dynamics, complexity, integral, network, and emergence.

The School of Leadership Development will provide a program that is intended to deepen our understanding of theory in the context of the utilitarian application of these ideas and axioms in the development of leadership in any system. This vision is a work in progress. As such the following examples of courses and programmatic elements of leadership development is intended to be suggestive.

An important initial step in the formation and implementation of the School of Integral Leadership Development will be a design of the curriculum that will provide clarity about the program, about the theory and about its application. Imagine, if you will, a multi-cell matrix with key theoretical orientations down the side and courses on integral leadership development across the top.

A note on the choice of” integral” to describe this School and its program.

Integral theory is based on the work of Ken Wilber who has stood on the shoulders of giants to provide us with a framework and a taxonomy that I find helpful in organizing ideas and designing their implementation. It is important to note that the development of integral theory continues to be a work in progress. As such I believe that it provides a useful organizing device to looking at leadership and its development in systems.

In my own development and evolution, there are aspects of integral theory that I am more or less comfortable with. Consequently, I am looking for the help of a few people to develop and deliver on this vision and its evolution. I am going to sit at the feet of Ken Wilber, Fred Kofmann and others to do the best I can to “grok” their perspective. Then I will integrate it with my own while sharing it with others.

Areas that will be important to explore will include the nature of lines of development. Currently they are being treated as discreet. In my more recent work I am beginning to see that as an oversimplification. This may have profound implications for how we see development and how we can foster it. I suspect it will affirm current thinking about the meaning of development itself. For example, to what degree is development about moving to new levels on these lines and to what extent is it about strengthening who we are by generating more clarity, awareness and, consequently, our capacity for choice and the effective use of social (business, etc.) networks?

One of the lines that is central to the work of Ken Wilber and his associates is that of spiritualism and consciousness – there is a definite “New Age” aspect to their approach. I am intrigued by this as any person with strong green would be, however, some of this seems unreal to me in that I have little direct experience of what they seem to assume to have meaning.

My intention is to use and evolve what I know and understand about integral theory and its application to help us get started. There are other Schools and programs in Leadership University that will help us develop our understanding of integral and other theories. The School of Integral Leadership Development is where we will learn and examine how to use these ideas to develop leadership in systems that can engage effectively with change, can foster innovation and can provide flexible and evolving foundations for action.

This is not a romantic notion of leadership. Leadership is about individuals and collectives in a dynamic and organic context evolving systems to deal with changing conditions and, if need be, effecting the deaths of no longer viable systems. It is not just about the romanticized notions of leaders found in the traditional literature of and by business and political leaders, but it is about the risks and dangers of leader behavior and the ethics of those behaviors. All of this will be explored through the spiral, integral, emergent lens.

 Listen to an Interview with Russ regarding the application of this work.

Russ Volckmann, Ph.D., Executive Coach Interview here

Examples of Classes that might be developed:

It is assumed that the phrase “integral theory” would include related theoretical orientations as discussed above.

Introduction to Integral Leadership Development I: Basic Concepts and

Applications

This class would be intended to provide participants with an exploration of the fundamentals of integral theory and examples of how this theory can be applied to leadership development.

Introduction to Integral Leadership Development II: At the Edge Theory and

Application

While this class may be merged with the one above at some point, here is a place to examine some of the more challenging aspects of integral theory and their application to leadership development.

Integral Assessment and Observation for Leadership Development

In any potential developmental intervention in a system a scope of work process is required. In organization development this process is about data gathering and feedback. This course will present the fundamentals of methods of assessment and an approach using an integral model. Students will design and conduct a scope of work process using an integral assessment in a system of their choosing.

Coaching for Integral Leadership Development

Having laid a more solid foundation and understanding of integral (and related?) theory, what are the implications for coaching? Here the models will be used to examine the coach and the skills required for using coaching to support Integral Leadership Development.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Development

For students interested in the application of the Hay Group’s Emotional Competence Inventory, here is an opportunity to take the instrument, to explore its application in their own work, how the instrument can be used effectively in leadership development and how it relates to integral theory.

Integral Leadership Development for Business Executives

This course will focus on the leadership development of individuals already in business executive roles. How can an integral approach be used effectively? Participants will be expected to develop a field application or design.

Integral Leadership Development for the Public Sector

This course will focus on the leadership development of individuals already in public sector executive roles. How can an integral approach be used effectively? Participants will be expected to develop a field application or design.

Integral Leadership Development for NGOs

This course will focus on the leadership development of individuals already in not-for-profit sector executive roles. How can an integral approach be used effectively? Participants will be expected to develop a field application or design.

Memetics, Values, Ethics, and the Spiral in Leadership Development

The idea behind this course would be to focus explicitly on the moral and ethical challenges of leadership, how they show up in contemporary systems, strategies for raising awareness and addressing choice.

These are just preliminary notions of the kinds of classes that might be made available. My hope is that those who choose to associate with this school as “Department Heads” will have a strong influence on the identification and evolution of the program in the School of Integral leadership Development. Together we will serve as a model of integral leadership and its development.

Click here for proposed path