Leadership Studies

Along with the accompanying foundational residency course GBLD505, this course critically explores the key concepts of global leadership through personal, collective, and theoretical lenses. This includes learning about one’s own cultural ‘lenses’, mental models and the historical structural inequalities, and coming to a broader understanding and integration of approaches to working in a global context. Participants will explore and describe their personal and collective values and goals, establish personal and collective learning plans, and prepare life and self for residency. During this course, a strong emphasis will be placed on building a supportive learning community, thus creating a strong foundation for the program. 

Focuses on building personal capacities in a global setting by developing self-awareness and self-management skills in regard to each individual’s values, beliefs, practices, and assumptions. Students will engage in developing intercultural communication skills that support authentic and collaborative relationships with others who have different values, beliefs, and behaviours. Students will explore and describe their own orientation to the world so as to enhance adaptability and resiliency in complex, changing environments. Students will learn the fundamentals of global leadership in complex environments. Students will learn to apply systems approaches to understanding complex organizational and societal systems, adopting different ways of knowing and considering political, social, cultural and spiritual perspectives. Students will explore dynamics of power across generational, gender and class divides and learn how to tap into the creative potentials of diversity, conflict, change and complexity. 

Develops knowledge and key skills necessary for conducting strategic analysis, decision making, and evaluation in the context of a ‘learning organization’ that is engaged in planning for complex social change. With donors and communities expecting results, and social-purpose organizations often working with uncertain long-term funding, competent planning is critical. The course will address how to establish innovative goals and processes, and project an ethical and accurate image of the organization, yet manage expectations that align with limited resources. Participants will be introduced to the processes of performance monitoring and evaluation, enabling them to assess the impact of organizational decision making and operations, and to revise decision making accordingly. 

Develops understanding of global communities in their relationships to wider social, cultural, historical, political and economic settings, factors, and ideas. Students connect theories and practices in global community development to the shifting social, political, and economic environments that shape people’s lives in the global North and South. Participants explore the centrality of the concept of globalization and the integration of local and global forces. They develop and apply global literacy in a number of domains: political, economic, cultural, moral, organizational, and spiritual/religious. 

Examines community development from a global perspective as it is practiced in different settings in the world. This includes examining global issues and a spectrum of community-development models, ranging from structured external models to grassroots initiatives originating from within a community (e.g., community movements). Students critically analyze the applicability of various models to specific contexts in different geographic locations; as well as apply their evolving understanding of different community development approaches to real-life contexts. Using current global community challenges and real-world challenges in which they themselves are involved, students explore how different community development approaches can work in a complementary fashion to optimize results at the community level. 

Examines tensions and conflicts that arise from the multidimensional and intersectional nature of globalized communities. Using a range of examples from different geographic locations, analyzes how political, economic, cultural, moral, organizational and/or spiritual/religious goals can compete with one another. Participants learn to understand contemporary tensions in their historic contexts and how conflicts can be transformed constructively. Through analyses of selected models and strategies applied at the community level, students develop an understanding of community-based approaches to harness tensions and conflicts, and how to engage in relationships with a global leadership perspective. 

This course provides you with a critical journey engaging planetary health leadership from transdisciplinary, (for example integral), health equity, Indigenizing perspectives and approaches. The units provide you with an overview of the current realities and the systemic relationships, drivers, and impacts propelling planetary health movements.  You will apply case studies, examining complexities and engaging global challenges in different fields of planetary health.  You will develop the capacities to convene ethical spaces, centering Indigenous, together with Western science in Two-Eyed Seeing.  Your foundational reflexivity and integration will be cultivated through land based and community dialogue in class conversations.

The course places the use and development of artificial intelligence (AI) in a social, political, and global context. Integrating theories, empirical research, and diverse perspectives, the course focuses on key challenges that the adoption and adaptation of AI pose to global leadership in the fourth industrial revolution. The main scope of the course is to build understanding of how ethics, technology, and culture play into social development, adaptation, and change, while considering inequities and asymmetrical relations. The course proposes hands-on innovative approaches to understanding these challenges and finding solutions that are operationally sound in local to global contexts, systems thinking oriented, ethically and politically aware, and culturally sensitive.

Focuses on principles and design of program and policy evaluation to facilitate development, learning and change initiatives in the global context of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Critical are theories and principles of leadership, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, and organizational learning, taking into consideration social, economic, cultural, and geo–political contexts. The course presents different models for using evaluative processes to provide clarity on program goals and operations, generate evidence on outcomes and what is working, and to guide new directions and improve impact. Different system paradigms and evaluation designs are identified in terms of theoretical and practice assumptions and implications.  

Provides an in-depth examination of the complex and evolving conceptions of leadership in extraordinary times. Examines major leadership theories and perspectives in current literatures through an intersectional and social inclusion lens to critically reflect on and understand challenges and opportunities facing today’s leaders. Critical reflection on leadership literature and students’ own worldviews, conceptions, and experiences of leadership will ground students’ studies throughout the program.

Examines the theory and practice of personal leadership including the pursuit of self understanding, self management of continuous learning, and professional responsibility and accountability. Develops students’ abilities to incorporate action inquiry and continuous learning in the practice of leadership and the ability to model espoused principles and values. Provides opportunities to enhance personal strengths and address challenges. Fosters an appreciation of the interdependent and contextual nature of effective leadership.

Examines the theory and practice of leading productive teams and of facilitating groups. Fosters appreciation of students’ abilities to communicate effectively in working relationships in support of productive collaboration. Develops students’ expertise in promoting effective decision-making, optimizing the benefits of diversity, planning and implementing of team goals, and assessing of outcomes. Promotes awareness and application of ethical principles and concepts. Encourages a systemic perspective to ensure fluid communication with the immediate organizational environment and knowledge of influences of the environment on the team.

Develops an appreciation for organizations and communities as open and interconnected systems by focusing on the interdependencies of contexts, structures, and relationships on their limits and possibilities. Combines systems thinking theory and concepts with leadership experience in the cohort, as a learning community and in an organization, to develop practical knowledge and skill in creating learning and work environments that generate engagement, productivity, and continuous improvement.

Examines key leadership related challenges facing health leaders working in health systems and explores considerations for health systems renewal and transformation in practice. In this course, students with leadership experience and a health professions background explore health systems challenges they are currently experiencing through different perspectives and orientations to identify possibilities for health systems renewal, transformation, or change. Throughout the course, health systems leaders engage with students to share their perspectives and insights about critical facets of health systems renewal and transformation and engage in meaningful dialogue.

Students with leadership experience and a health professions background, explore and address widespread racism and discrimination towards Indigenous and racialized People in healthcare and the direct link to health disparities and outcomes. The course begins by establishing a baseline of knowledge and skills around systemic racism, colonization, and discrimination and creates a supportive container for learning. Draws connection between yourself, your identities, and the land, and considers how you interact with systems. Finally, considers what it means to have an ‘anti-racist or equity stance’ and what attitudes, behaviours, and skills demonstrate both awareness and action.

Emphasizes the development of leadership strength for dealing with unpredictable challenges through values-based approach to decisions and actions. Fosters exploration, in theory and in practice, of key constructs of values-based leadership and its relationship to adaptability, resilience, authenticity, responsibility, emergent learning, reflective practice, and wisdom. Enhances ‘values fluency’ in articulation of core values, and alignment of behavior and values in complex contexts. Promotes awareness of the relationship between leadership practice and the realization of others’ potential and creation of organizational environments.

Develops leadership knowledge and the ability to evolve a common understanding of purpose and shared values for creative and sustainable collaboration in teams and partnerships. Examines, in theory and practice, values-based leadership as a foundation for creating trust, fostering reflective dialogue, leveraging difference and diversity, and generating innovation in and through relationships. Develops an understanding of conflict in relation to motivation and as a source of innovation.

Provides models and methods for engaging people in developing productive, innovative, resilient and sustainable cultures in workplaces and communities. Introduces an integral perspective for understanding the relationship between values based leadership and complex systems—their cultures and structures. Overviews current instruments for assessing cultures. Includes conduct of a values based leadership project in which students are supported by the instructor and peers in online groups. Fosters practical wisdom through reflection on projects in face-to-face or virtual meeting formats.