Presentation to Athabasca MBA October 2017 Toronto.

1. Renaissance Leadership
Stephen Murgatroyd, PhD FBPsS FRSA
Athabasca University, October 2017

2. This Presentation
Setting the Context
Understanding Leadership
Mapping the Future

3. CONTEXT

5. Our Map of the Future Has Changed
• Austerity and financial challenges for public
and private enterprise
• Emerging technologies – 3D Printing, AI,
Robotics, Stem Cells
• Demographic Changes

6. • “Shift” Happens – shifting economic and political
power
• New “interstructure” – smart cities, buildings,
grids, systems for transport
• New thinking about our planet – 9 Billion Lives
• New sense of identity linked to a new view of
“work”

7. LEADERSHIP

8. No Doubt You Have Studied..

9. So then, having reviewed 1,753 books and
2,627 research papers…we asked…
• Can we make sense of all
of this…
• Can we get really clear…
• Can we keep it simple…
• Can we stay out of the
way of Attila, Machiavelli
and Genghis Khan?

10. Renaissance Leadership

11. and..

12. Characteristic 1: Practice Personal
Mastery
• They are not being leaders to find out who they are..
• They realise that the work isn’t about them – its
about the students and their learning
• They realize that they are not the most important
person in the school – those who engage in teaching
and learning are..
• They lead a balanced life-style…
• They look after themselves..

13. Characteristic 2: Apply a Glocal
Mindset
• They realize that there is life beyond work and school..
• That others are doing wonderful things in education in
other schools around the world (and not just in Finland..)
• That Singapore has to think glocally to be successful locally
• That the future is about collaboration and engagement
with others globally..so that innovation can take place
locally
• That adopting and then adpating is how 95% of all
innovation takes place…

14. Characteristic 3: Accelerate Cross
Boundary Learning
• They don’t reject learning from the great ideas of others in
other sectors – health, business, non profits..
• They actively seek out learning from other spheres – how
can we learn math through music or art, how can we learn
about leading a school by studying retail organizations..
• They understand that the engagement of teachers and the
other adults in the school in the work of leadership is as
important as they way they do as teachers, support staff,
administrators, janitors..

15. Characteristic 4: Think Back from the
Future
• They don’t guess where their school is
going…they are deliberate about it..
• They can communicate vision, strategy and
direction…
• They don’t guess, they make evidence based
decisions..based on a chosen future…

16. Characteristic 5: Lead Systematic
Change
• They know how to inspire, engage and focus the work of
the people in their organization
• They can connect current activities (where we are) to the
future (where we need to be) in ways that inspire action…
• They know that engagement is better than demanding..
• They inspire confidence in change because their colleagues
know that it comes from the heart as well as the mind..

17. Characteristic 6: Drive Performance
with Passion
• They can use evidence of progress (or failure) to
inspire and engage …
• They can use to the “what” to lead people
through the “so what” to the “now what”..
• They can lead across and deliver within..
• They can use a crisis to enable change..
• They take risks (within the rules) and live with
paradox

18. Using the 6 Characteristics with the
7S’s
• Shared values – do we share the right values for this time or are our values based
on a different time?
• Strategy – are we pursuing the right strategy for the next period of time or just
rolling along doing what we have always done?
• Structure – is the structure we now have the one we will need for our future?
• Systems – are our systems and processes all they should be?
• Skills – do we have the right skills for our future and do we need to strengthen and
deepen our skill-set?
• Staff – is this the team we need for our future or do we need to shift the team
around, add to it or change it in some other way?
• Style – do we operate in the right way with the right style?

19. This what I see Jean P Stiles do…
• Build and empower teams..
• Build and empower supports for
learners and learning- customers
• Enable the student voice to be
heard in all aspects of strategy,
action plans
• Connect to others around the
world..collaborate and build
alliances
• Focus, focus, focus on equity
Never let a crisis go to waste..

20. But Can we Make this Even Simpler?

21. MAPPING THE FUTURE

22. 5 FUTURE FOCUSED LEADER POINTS OF ACTION
• Performance is about the triple bottom line: successful
and engaged organizations, making a difference to
community and responding to the challenge of 9 Billion
Lives
• Social impact investing beyond the boundary of the
firm
• Developing people and inter-structure as primary
assets – learning is the new resource for competitive
advantage

23. • Thinking back from the future is the key skill
for leadership teams
• Agile and resilient organizations need to be
the legacy of leadership

24. @murgatroydsteph
murgatroydstephen@gmail.com