HARVARDKENNEDY SCHOOL
(MLD-364j)LeadershipontheLine
January 2014
General CourseInformation
To lead is to live with danger. Although it may be exciting to think of leadership as inspiration, decisive action, and powerful rewards, leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life. It requires putting yourself on the line, disturbing the status quo, and working with organizational and political conflicts. Those who choose to lead take the risks and sometimes are neutralized for doing so.
This course has three parts: (1) the sources and forms of danger in leadership; (2) diagnostic, strategic, and tactical responses to these dangers; and (3) ways to stay alive, not only in your job, but in your heart and soul.
Structured daily into large and small group discussions, the course draws on student cases and case-in-point teaching -- using the classroom process to understand role and system dynamics. The course is designed to be a transformative personal experience with the intent to generate more options for diagnosis and action in the practice of leadership. It complements the systems framework developed in MLD-201.
Instructor:
Ronald Heifetz617-495-7867L-204,Littauer, 2ndFloor
Faculty Assistant:
Stacy Hannell617-496-1477R-110B,Rubenstein, 1stFloor
Head Teaching Assistant:
Shannon McAuliffe; ; 617-869-3488
Teaching Assistants:
Lilia Aquilar;
Waqar Ali;
Balu Balasubramaniam;
Regina Feltman;
Lauren Lyons;
James Purdon;
Torben Schulz;
TheTeachingAssistants arehereto support thelearningofstudents throughout the course.Students should not hesitateto meet with theTAs at anytimeduringthe course.
Structure:
The coursewill meet from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm each day, January6-17,except forSaturday and Sunday. The class sessions consist of large class meetingsand small consultation group discussions. Eight oftheten days consist oflarge class work, case analysis, andgeneraldiscussion. Lunchtimeforeach ofthesedays will bedevotedto small group consultations. Two oftheten dayswill bedevoted solelyto small group consultations.
ConsultationGroup Sessions:
All students will be assigned to a small consultation group that will meet daily. Therewill beatotal ofsixteen small group sessions duringthecourse. Ateach smallgroup session, oneperson on arotatingbasis will chairthemeetingand oneperson will present acase. Eachgroup will consist ofseven members so that each memberwill havetheopportunityto serve as Chairand Case Presentertwice (onceperweek).Guidelines fortheCasePresenterwill behanded out duringthesmall group orientation on the first dayofthecourse.
Small groups should draw on class concepts to analyzeeachcasein aneffort to consult to the CasePresenter. Onceortwiceeach day,asmall group will be called on to present its caseto the whole class fortheCaseDebrief.
Final Paper:
Therewill beonlyonewritten assignment forthis course. This will bea10-12 pagereflection paperdueby10 am on Monday, January27, 2014. Sixtypercent oftheMLD-364jcoursegradewill come from the final paper and fortypercent fromparticipation in the classand small groups.
Students takingboth MLD-201 and MLD-364jwill submit asinglepaper(15-18 pages)to fulfill the final paper requirement forboth courses.
The coursemust beadded to your Spring Termstudy card;grades will beposted bylate
February.
Reading:
In light oftheintensivenatureofthis course, required readingwill belimited to two books: HeifetzandLinsky, Leadership on theLine:Staying Alivethrough theDangers of Leading (Boston: HarvardBusiness School Press, 2002) and Heifetz, Grashow,andLinsky, ThePractice of AdaptiveLeadership:Tools and Tactics for Changing your Organization and theWorld (Boston: HarvardBusiness Press, 2009). As pre-reading, all students should have read or reviewed: Heifetz, Leadership without EasyAnswers (Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1994). The coursewill assumeaworkingknowledgeoftheconceptsin this book.
Learning Support:
The class will be audio recordedeach day. A linkto the recordings will beavailablethrough the class website. Students must maintain strict confidentialitywhen dealingwith these recordings. Theyareto beused onlybythoseenrolled in MLD-364j.
Commitment:
Collaborativestudent learningis essential to MLD-364jcoursework, especiallyin the consultation groups. Students areexpected to attend all parts ofthe course,on time, and with name cards. If for exceptional medical, family, orreligious reasons students arenot ableto attend aportion oftheclass ora consultationgroup meeting, theyshould let theinstructorortheir TA know,alongwith members oftheirsmallgroup. Accordingto school policy, students missingoneormorefull days of class cannot receive credit forJanuarycourses.
Pre-Requisite:
MLD-201--Exercising Leadership: ThePolitics ofChange is apre-requisite forthis course. MLD-364j is designed tocomplement MLD-201 and can bemisleadingwithout it. In contrast, MLD-201 is designed tostand on its own. MLD-201 takes asystemic approach to diagnosis and action, whereas MLD-364jexplores thepersonalfactors that determinesuccess and survival. To describe the difference anotherway, MLD-201 analyzesfrom theoutside–in, with a focus on reading the context, whereas MLD-364janalyzesfrom the inside-out, with a focus on the individual determinants of behavior.
With permission, students and Fellows can reverse the order of these two courses and takeMLD-201 afterMLD-364j in thespringorthe following fall semester.
Daily CourseTopics
Week One
January6Dangers ofLeadership
January7DiagnosticFrameworkI
January8Small Group Work Day
January9DiagnosticFrameworkII
January10Action FrameworkI
Week Two
January13Action FrameworkII
January14ManageYourHungers
January15Small Group Work Day
January16AnchorYourself
January17What is on theLine?
MLD-364j Daily Schedule
WeekOne
Mon, Jan 6The Heart & Faces of Danger
Reading:
Chapters 1&2 / Tues, Jan 7
Get on the Balcony
Reading:
Chapter 3 / Wed, Jan 8
Small Group Work Day / Thu, Jan 9
Think Politically, Orchestrate the Conflict
Reading:
Chapters
4&5 / Fri, Jan 10
Orchestrate the Conflict,
Give the Work Back
Reading:
Chapter 6 / Weekend,
Jan 11-12
Read:
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
9:00-10.30am / Large Class / Large Class / SGS 3 / Large Class / Large Class
10.30-11:00am / Break
11:00-12:30pm / Large Class / Large Class Case Analysis / SGS 4 / Large Class Case Debrief / Large Class Case Debrief
12.30-2:00pm / Lunch +
SGS 1
Small group orientation * / Lunch +
SGS 2 / Lunch / Lunch +
SGS 7 / Lunch +
SGS 8
2:00-3:30pm / Large Class / Large Class Case Debrief / SGS 5 / Large Class Case Debrief / Large Class Case debrief
3.30-4.00pm / Break
4:00-5.30pm / Large Class / Large Class / SGS 6 / Large Class / Large Class
*Smallgroupsshouldusethisorientation for introductions, assign theChairandCasePresenterforeach of theremaining15 smallgroup sessions, clarifyregularluncharrangements, andprepare to make any necessary adjustments with thedaily meetinglocation.
SGS = SmallGroup Session
Please note: The actual breakout and lunch times may vary by day.
Week Two
Mon, Jan 13GivetheWork Back,
Hold Steady
Reading:
Chapter7 / Tues, Jan 14
Manage yourHungers
Reading:
Chapter8 / Wed, Jan 15
SmallGroup
WorkDay / Thurs, Jan 16
AnchorYourself
Reading:
Chapter9 / Fri,Jan 17
What’s on
theLine?
Reading:
Chapters
1011
9:00-10.30 am / LargeClass / LargeClass / SGS 11 / LargeClass / LargeClass
10:30-11:00 am / Break
11:00-12.30 pm / LargeClass
CaseDebrief / LargeClass
CaseDebrief / SGS 12 / LargeClass
CaseDebrief / LargeClass
CaseDebrief
12.30-2:00 pm / Lunch +
SGS 9 / Lunch +
SGS 10 / Lunch / Lunch +
SGS 15 / Lunch +
SGS 16
2:00-3.30 pm / LargeClass
Casedebrief / LargeClass
CaseDebrief / SGS 13 / LargeClass
CaseDebrief / LargeClass
CaseDebrief
3:30 – 4pm / Break
4:00-5.30 pm / LargeClass / LargeClass / SGS 14 / LargeClass / LargeClass