• Identify the role of leadership in today’s society and economy
• Based on the literature of the course, describe the essence of leadership
• Describe a practical leadership challenge in you organization and your own role in relation to this challenge
• Reflect on the capacities of your system to engage with the current main challenge, as well as describe actions taken to explore and develop relational network surrounding the leadership challenge
• Utilize concepts and models from the course literature to reflect on the state of the system, the context, and your actions to explore and develop the leadership challenge, and your own role in relation to the challenge.

The world of business and organizations is increasingly complex and volatile. Political crises, climate crises, development of new and disruptive technologies, and rapid market changes are just a few of the types of contextual challenges facing many organizations. In response this, and at times proactively to exploit new opportunities, organizations need to adapt, to change structures, processes, practice and technologies. This calls for leadership, that is, the process of mobilizing a collective to pursue organizational relevant goals. Such leadership demands capacities to be observant of challenges and opportunities even if signs are weak; to challenge the taken for granted stories and descriptions of the organization and the environment; and to mobilize others even though this might be risky and demanding.

In this course, we focus on the capacity to observe, reflect on, and develop one’s own understanding and framing of a situation, as well as the capacity to enable a collective to explore the current situation. Rather than to immediately act and rush forward with hasty solutions, trying to force through changes, we develop the capacity to slow down and explore a complex situation, including one’s own closest collaborators or team, and to develop the capacity in this system to engage in adaptive changes. We draw on academic texts exploring the relational and contextual aspects of leadership, and utilize theoretical concepts and models to challenge one’s own thinking about leadership, about the organization, and about one’s own role in the leadership challenge. Throughout the course, you explore your system and situation through a range of actions and exercises, performed in your own organization, with the aim of widen your understanding of the phenomenon of leadership as well as deepen your understanding of your own situation.