North Seattle Community College
Beginnings, Fall 2009
Preskill and Brookfield’s Nine Learning Tasks of Leadership
1. Learning to be open to the contribution of others (foundational skill)
We begin to view small groups as an ecology of we, not me (interdependence); We begin to perceive diversity as a value; and we understand that today’s challenges are best solved by including multiple stakeholders’ perspectives and insights (those with influence and those whose voices are marginalized).
2. Learning how to reflect critically on one’s practice – only as we become open to the contributions of others can we gather the perspectives needed to practice critical reflection (shifting from the balcony and the dance floor).
3. Learning how to support the growth of others – Instead of asking, how did I do, one learns to ask how did we do? What did we learn? What could we do better?
4. Learning to develop collective leadership skills – Group members become aware of how individual learning is premised on and contributes to the learning of others.
5. Learning to analyze experience – This is a leadership practice that leads us to challenge our old assumptions and then to reconfigure accepted practices. Changing our mind is not seen as a weakness but strength.
6. Learning to question oneself and others – what we learn on one day serves as a bridge to consider a whole new set of understandings and challenges. The group becomes a living field of experience and new knowledge. We never cease growing and learning how to work together most effectively.
7. Learning democracy – Learning democracy requires that we learn democratic principles. We learn to honor diversity, living with the partial function of the democratic ideal, avoid the trap of false antithesis (where we are always forced to choose between either-or, learn to avoid the temptation to bypass the democratic process in the interest of speedily reaching a decision, develop collective forms of social and economic planning, etc.
8. Learning to sustain hope in the face of struggle – The longer one learns about collective leadership practices, the more one becomes aware of just how deep and strong are the structural forces that oppose attempts to change the status quo. Radical pessimism.
9. Learning to create community – We seek to build community and teach the value of community-based decision making and leadership where people’s experience and knowledge are honored and where opportunities for members to develop their talents and capacities are supported.
From Stephen Preskill and Stephen Brookfield, Learning as a Way of Leading: Lessons from the Struggle for Social Justice. Jossey-Bass, 2009.
More on Collective/Adaptive Leadership Skills from Sharon Daloz Parks: Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World (Harvard Business School Press, 2005).
Collective/adaptive leaders function within small groups/communities/organizations that operate as living systems that need tending, seek balance, and function best with diversity. The issues they face are like swamp-like in that they are complex, contain many hidden elements, function interdependently, and are important for our survival.
Elements of collective leadership
Authority vs. Leadership
“Today’s complex conditions require acts of leadership that assist people in moving beyond the edge of familiar patterns into the unknown terrain of greater complexity, new learning, and new behaviors, usually requiring loss, grief, conflict, risk, stress, and creativity” (Daloz Parks, 9).
Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges
“Adaptive challenges often appear as swamp issues — tangled, complex problems composed of multiple systems that resist technical analysis and thus stand in contrast to the high, hard ground issues that are easier to address, but where less is at stake” (Daloz Parks, 10).
Power vs. Progress
“When leadership is understood as an activity, there is less attention to be paid to the transactions of power and influence and more attention given to the question of whether or not progress is being made on swamp issues” (Daloz Parks, 10).
Personality vs. Presence
“…the multifaceted capacity to be present becomes a key factor in effective leadership: the quality of one’s capacity to be fully present, comprehend what is happening, hold steady in the field of action, and make choices about when and how to intervene in ways that help the group make progress on swamp issues” (Daloz Parks, 11).