Monday, Day 1 (full day that is)

Breakfast started out fun today. I got to chat with Sandra from Manchester at our breakfast table about Manchester and Ireland. She had met Tony Wilson whom she described as quite a figure in the city. We also talked about Ireland as her husband is Irish and they go there often. I got to remember my travels there. And it makes me want to return and to visit the UK too.

Today we focused what it means to be a leader coming up with various definitions of leaders. We touched on the contrast between managers (doing things right) vs leaders (doing the right things) and how you need to be a good manager before being a good leader. Diana also shared some of her perspectives one of which lead me to think hard about developing a better scrutiny filter. She talked about being relentlessly realistic about projects, people, why we do things, how we do things, how much we do, doing things better, and if we should do things. These all make up a scrutiny filter for me.

We also touched on John Maeda’s recent Nercomp conference. He contrasted the traditional leadership model with a creative leadership model. These slides show it concisely. This really resonated with me. I can see, in contrast to other organizations, that Augsburg is more creative than traditional. But what was more interesting was though I am drawn to the creative behaviors I feel the internal tension questioning “but that’s not what a leader does.” I can hear the traditional, societal, model of a leader ingrained in me. Much to reflect on from today.