The Program

From the opening retreat through to the January Learning Day, participants learn the core curriculum of Leadership Calgary. Starting in the Fall, participants form Learning Circles based on themed topics relevant to Pioneer Leadership. From February through May, the Learning Circles each take one day to present to the rest of the class. This format encourages deep, personal inquiry and peer learning opportunities that prepare participants for the challenges of solving complex problems. The program ends with a closing retreat.

At its most profound the program asks: What does it means to be alive and human? How do we draw on the best and worst of culture to help us move the human venture in the direction of life progress? How do we even know what life progress looks like?

In Leadership Calgary, you will map out the frontiers and dynamics of human progress across disciplines, sectors, cultures and periods of history. In the program, we will look for the best and worst of human thought, learning and action, and search for common patterns that we can assess, integrate and apply in meeting adaptive challenges at every level of social integration — individual, organization, community, society and culture.

These are not small or easy questions. Through the Leadership Calgary journey, participants are challenged to address the quality of their thinking and understanding.

Community Leadership

The capacity to see what needs to be done;
The courage to take the lead;
The ability to inspire others to action;
The willingness to break down barriers; and
The fundamental ability to collaborate with others in community so that together, great results are achieved, far greater that what one could do by oneself.

Transformational Leadership

Transformation implies a fundamental change in the structure, function and/or state of things.

Transformations can make things better and/or worse. Typically the term "transformation" assumes a change for the better, but history shows us that this assumption is often naive. There is nothing more dangerous than a transformational leader - unless that leader is wise and responsible.

Transformation becomes necessary when the adaptive constraints of an existing order (design, system, model, regime, etc...) start to outweigh its advantages and these constraints are so basic and pervasive that they cannot be overcome by operational improvements or modifications.

Computer hardware and software development provide familiar examples of the difference between improvement and transformation. Each new product is followed by a series of upgrades and patches until the practical limits of improving on an existing design is reached, and developmental efforts move on to new and better designs.

Whatever the field of endeavor, the processes of improvement and transformation are inevitably complex, messy, conflicted and uncertain; contingent not only on developing a deep understanding of the ways things work and the ways they can fail - but also how to judge what progress is and what it isn't, whether it is worth pursuing, how to negotiate opposing forces, and how to mobilize people and resources for the journey.

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