Leadership, Dialogue, and Change

Graduate

Fall This course offers an alternative to the "great man" theory of leadership and #8212;in which success is built on charisma, power, status, or institutional authority. The contemporary model of "adaptive leadership," however, depends on an ability to draw a divided community into a dialogue that re-frames the problem and may even call on us to re-interpret our values. We will see this in action, comparing the methods of Martin Luther King to the radical community organizing of Saul Alinsky, and in the influential of African-American cultural critiques of Cornel West and bell hooks, and in the work of students calling for change on campuses. All this work poses a question: how does dialogue work in the rhetoric of making a difference? So in the second half, we put theory into practice, organizing a CMU Community Think Tank on a campus issue, in this case on student empowerment will learn strategies for analyzing a problem, framing, issues, giving rhetorical presence to those problems and creating counterpublics that put new ideas into circulation. The class collects data across diverse, often competing perspectives, to create a Briefing Book, that will guide your live Round Table problem-solving dialogues, and then document, write and publish your Findings www.cmu.edu/thinktank. Aa a portfolio project it will demonstrate your ability to support problem-solving dialogues across difference in a community or organization.