Leadership Development Institute

First Half:  Wednesday February 20, 2008 from 5-8 pm

Second Half:  Wednesday March 5, 2008 from 5-8 pm

Dinner Provided

11th Floor Conference Room, College of Business

Space is limited and chosen on a competitive basis. We have held a limited number of positions for open application.

What It Is.  While effective leadership is vital to organizational success, it is increasingly difficult in our diversifying and changing environments. Leaders must learn to manage a diversity of problem solvers who are collectively solving key problems. Leaders must solve problems effectively and make better decisions while working with a wide array of individuals and teams. Problem-solving leadership helps emerging leaders do just that.

The workshop will help you develop the personal techniques and inter-personal skills of a problem-solving leader. You will learn to apply Adaption-Innovation practice, research and theory to become a more effective leader. We’ll ask you to engage in personal reflection and use interactive learning methods, problem-solving and decision-making techniques, participatory discussions, and practical examples that you can relate and apply to real-life solutions.

Who should participate.  Intelligent and intellectually curious university Juniors and Seniors seeking to improve their knowledge and skills related to leadership, effective team performance and problem solving.  OPEN TO ALL ISU MAJORS.

During this workshop we will…

• Explore perceptions of leaders and the roles they take on during problem solving.
• Investigate common challenges associated with problem solving.
• Describe the problem-solving process and how different types of diversity might help or hinder the process.
• Introduce a framework for understanding what goes on inside the head of a leader.
• Explore how your preferred problem-solving style may influence other aspects of your “thinking machine,” e.g. the types of change you like to promote, your reaction to others who are different from you, how others respond to changes you propose, and your behavior as a leader and a supervisor.
• Introduce Adaption-Innovation theory, KAI, a measure of thinking style, and key concepts of Adaption-Innovation theory.
• Provide feedback on your personal KAI results.
• Reflect on how your preferred style can help or hinder your problem solving process and your effectiveness.
• Develop strategies for addressing tension that results from interpersonal differences and discuss ways to leverage cognitive diversity for improved performance of problem solving, routine management or project work.

By the end of this workshop you will develop new insights and/or skills regarding…

• The types of challenges associated with problem solving.
• The way your brain solves problems and the relationship between preferred style and level of creativity, coping behavior, skills, experience, values, attitudes, motives and influences from social environments.
• Your cognitive style and the problem-solving styles of others.
• How, as a leader, you can more effectively solve problems and make decisions for yourself and with others by understanding how people manage structure and take in information.
• What skills you need to develop in order to be a broader problem solver and deploy your own thinking style more effectively.
• How to make better predictions about the behaviors associated with “people problems” and how to redirect team energy to the main problems to be solved.
• How to leverage style diversity so you improve group performance.

Presenters.  Priscilla Wolfe and Art Sherwood practice, study and teach Adaption-Innovation theory, problem solving, and decision-making process and techniques against a background of understanding the problem solving process and the problem solver.

Priscilla Wolfe, Ph.D.  Priscilla Wolfe is Director of the Leadership Development Institute at Indiana State University and the Senior Education Associate for Networks Financial Institute. Since 1999, Dr. Wolfe has worked with the Occupational Research Centre in England as an Associate Tutor of KAI programs in North America, Europe and Asia and is an experienced trainer, facilitator and consultant. She received her Ph.D. in education from Indiana State University.

Art Sherwood, Ph.D. Art Sherwood is Associate Professor of Management at the Indiana State University School of Business and the Senior Fellow for Leadership Development for Networks Financial Institutes. Over the past decade, Dr. Sherwood has taught, consulted, researched and written extensively about leadership, strategy, learning and effective teaming both in the United States and Europe. He received his M.B.A. and Ph.D. from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.