Leading persuasively for innovation (2235.YR.014480.1)

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Queralt Prat Pubill	Ciencias Sociales	ENG

This course is experimentally based, it will require continuous experimentation.

We live in an age of an ever increasing pace of discovery and change. Science and technology interact by producing new products and services. While we are being inundated by all these offerings, this same science and technology is changing the ways we work and relate to each other. More fundamentally, the demands placed on employees, managers and entrepreneurs to be creative and "think outside the box? are stronger than ever. Entrepreneurs, managers and workers alike need to be able to pivot, adapt, rethink and reimagine not only their product and services but also their attitudes, their understandings, their systems and processes.

However, few realise that there are key levers that might prevent the creative development that we so desire. Specificall, error and conflict can be found in any organization and can be used to accelerate innovation. Traditionally management focuses on solving problems, on detecting and analysing issues, and creating solutions. However for innovation to take place, solving organizational problems might be detrimental. This might sound paradoxical in prevalent management practice.

Errors in organization are commonly treated as "people problems?, and many times the sole objective is to look for the cause and "erase? the problem. This approach has many negative consequences for the organization, mainly hindering creativity and fostering demotivation. There is another way of dealing with error, fostering engagement and innovation.

Also, interestingly, conflict is perceived in our culture as a situation that arouses negative feelings. We could say, "we have a conflict with conflict? and we deal with conflict "from a place already in conflict?. This is already a recipe for a non-creative conflict resolution. Moreover, in order to resolve conflicts we learn to avoid, accommodate, compromise or compete. All of these resolution options are not sustainable and negative for humans living in technoscientific societies because they obstruct the creation of better solutions for everyone involved in the situation.

In this course we will learn how our cognitive abilities can be used to discover new framings, new understandings and possibilities. Non-violent communication focuses on reframing how we express ourselves and hear others. Instead of unconsciously following our automatic reactions, our words become rooted in awareness of what we are perceiving, feeling and wanting and create the required space for the creation of innovative new ways of acting and understanding.

This course is experimentally based, it will require continuous experimentation.

People commonly believe that defining clear goals, having good intentions and developing a solid trust foundation, in which to build a smooth communication, is all that is needed to have an engaged team focused on innovation.

Nothing further from the truth, people are not decision systems, nor do they submit to "clear defined goals?. In this course we focus on two central elements present in any organization: conflict and failure.Understanding how error and conflict can be harnessed to foster team innovation is key to be able to create engaging work dynamics favouring innovation. This course aims to provide you with the theoretical and practical knowledge to achieve this objective in any endeavour you may want to pursue.

- Detect, analyse and manage our cognitive abilities.
- Approach error and conflict with a creative mindset to foster innovation
- Evaluate and decide how to organise for learning on error and conflict.

1. MODULE 1 - Error in organisations. How to organise for innovation? Session 1. Case study: Castle media. Test your approach on error. Session 2. Case study: Who is responsible for the Drawbridge drama? Session 3. Failed advice on error and problem solving

2. MODULE 2 - Human quality. Learning about your biases. Session 4. Understanding Human quality Session 5. Experiments and practices Session 6. Elements of inquiry, which texts? Which practices? How to use them?

3. MODULE 3 - Non-violent communication. How to deal with conflict for innovation. Session 7. Self-test. Common approaches to dealing with conflict. Testing Lab. Session 8. Case study: Complexity, conflicting goals and human conflict in organisations. Session 9. Refining non-violent communication

Learning by doing

Argyris, C. (2000). Flawed advice and the management trap. Oxford University Press.
Blank, S. (2020). Managing organizational conflict. McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers
Castaneda, C. (1972). Journey to Ixtlan. Washington Square Press NonFiction.
Chia, R. (2004). Re-educating attention. What is foresight and how is it cultivated. In H. Tsoukas & J. Shepherd (Eds.), Managing the future. Strategic foresight in the knowledge economy. Blackwell Publishing.
Corbí, M. (2016). How to approach wisdom traditions writings? 1-7.
Corbí, M. (2016). Principles of an Epistemology of Values. Springer IP AG Switzerland.
Kofman, F. (2007). Metamanagement. The new business conscience. Granica.
Lanfranchi, G. (1977). Self-guidance. (English) La formation de soi par soi. La Table Ronde.
Rosenberg, M. (2015). Nonviolent Communication. A Language of Life. Puddledancer Press.
Woods, D. D., Dekker, S., Cook, R., Johannesen, L., & Sarter, N. (2010). Behind human error. Ashgate.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Queralt Prat Pubill	Ciencias Sociales