It's good when a newsletter can offer you links to material you can use in your own work and life. I think you will find several resources in the news below that you may find of value. The exuberant photo above are participants at the Waterloo Followership Conference sending their aspirations for followership study and practice into the world on the wings of paper airplanes they each made. It's good to leaven serious subjects with energy-producing playfulness.
GLOBAL FOLLOWERSHIP CONFERENCE
For those who were not able to join us this past summer at the Global Followership Conference at the University of Waterloo in Canada, I am delighted to share with you news of the event.
My friends and colleagues, Samantha and Marc Hurwitz, organized a conference with a deeply satisfying blend of academic research, practitioner application, community building and future visioning.
The first product they left behind from this gathering are the papers and presentations on multiple aspects of followership that you are free to access and draw on in your own work.
My keynote speech on Elevating the Followership Agenda can be
accessed here in several segments for easier viewing. It will challenge you to think more expansively on the role of followership research and practice in sustaining the precious freedoms we enjoy in liberal democracies, which must be protected and renewed by every generation.
Muhsin Budiono, whose work I have previously highlighted in this newsletter, was very deservedly given the first Followership Trailblazer Award at the Global Conference. Soon after returning to Indonesia he was invited to discuss followership on Suara Surabaya Radio, which reaches more than one million listeners. Once again, Muhsin sowed the seeds for thinking about more self-responsible, courageous and constructive ways of performing the follower role at all levels of society.
I am proud to have contributed the opening chapter
Leading and Following for Transformation in a Racialized Society (
read abstract) to the book
Peace, Reconciliation and Social Justice in the 21st Century. This newly published book takes an important step towards answering the questions "leadership for what?" and "followership for what?" in a world riven with struggles for social justice. The book is sent to all members of the
International Leadership Association and is available to others through various points of sale.
Many in the United States are concerned about hyper partisanship that impedes our legislators from addressing the major issues of our times.
The PEW Trust is committed to fostering bipartisan dialogue. Last month, it held a retreat that was attended by Chiefs of Staff of both parties from over half of the US Senate offices.
I was invited to present an adaptation of courageous follower seminars that I titled "The Courageous Chief of Staff: The Art of Providing Guidance and Feedback to the Senator". It was very well received. As in all cases when courageous followership is skillfully applied, we will rarely hear about specific outcomes but are justified in believing important conversations will occur when they can most make a difference.
Intelligent Disobedience is based on the metaphor of a guide dog keeping a person who is blind safe as they move from point to point. We need effective safety practices in many areas of life. This keynote address in Vancouver, Canada, was tailored to safety officers responsible for the lives and well being of workers in even the most dangerous industries. If safety is an area of concern in your own activities, you may find ideas in this keynote helpful to enhancing a culture that values and practices it.
I recently gave a presentation on teaching Intelligent Disobedience to children for the staff of a global organization. We will make the video available once it has been edited.
For now, please encourage those with young children to
download the free workbook and engage them in a few short learning sessions. It is an important tool for their safety now and their future moral development.
We are less than two weeks away from the International Leadership Association's always exciting conference. For those of you who will be participating, I look forward to seeing you there. For the rest of my friends and colleagues, I will report on highlights in December, in our final newsletter of the year.
Meanwhile, for those of us in the northern hemisphere, enjoy the crisp air and colors of Fall, and for those in the southern hemisphere, enjoy a glorious transition into Spring.
Just as there is benevolent and malevolent leadership, so there is healthy and unhealthy followership. If I, or one of the colleagues who share my passion for courageous followership, can be of help with your own programs, please let us know.
What about you and the organizations in which you work? Would you like help in developing courageous follower or intelligent disobedience modules for those folks? If I can be of help please
let me know.
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