Creating Inspiring Workshops and Courses in Transdisciplinarity: A Guide - Manual / Resource - Page 62
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Being intentional – Complex problems do not arise
because systems are broken; they arise from perfectly
well-working systems that were designed to create those
problematic outcomes. Thus, they don’t need to be “fixed,”
nor do they “solve themselves”; instead, they need to be
redesigned. Similarly, project teams don’t come together
as effective collaboratives “by accident.” Leadership
requires intentionality in building a team, as well as a
shared problem-understanding and vision of success;
group norms that all “own” and abide by; a strategy for
implementing the project; and a timeline that allows for
frequent pauses to take stock, update each other, reflect
and learn together, debrief challenges, and celebrate
successes.
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Being accountable – If trusting each other is crucial in
collaborative teams, so is being trustworthy. And that
means being accountable – as a leader as much as a
non-leading team member. This not only refers to the
delivery of assigned tasks, but also the quality of how
roles are being enacted, as well as that of communication
among team members. Regular check-ins to actively
seek and provide feedback help build a team culture of
accountability and trust.
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Thinking in systems – Leadership of collaborative
projects requires thinking of the multiple dimensions
of the problem at hand, but also of the research/action
collaborative as a dynamic system, or system of systems.
This essentially means looking at what is included and
excluded in the way we draw the boundary around a set
of things and exploring how the parts or people relate to
each other, and the dynamics they create. Importantly,
complex systems do not function by simple or linear
cause-and-effect causality, but often involve difficultto-plan or predict system dynamics, such as circular,
interlocking, sometimes time-delayed relationships,
feedback loops, unpredictable emergent properties, or
events and disruptions. It takes time to intuit, learn, and
work within these dynamics, ideally, by making small
experimental moves, closely observing the consequences,
and thus learning about them.
The most effective TD leaders can navigate
昀氀uidly across the leadership spectrum.
p. 57
In-depth exploration of leadership
