Flexible, blen d in Central Lo ed study ndon
Illustration Š Thunderpad / Thai Padley
How do leaders respond to an ever-changing world? Today we define ourselves not just by our profession, but by the way we do things and how they are connected - across geographical boundaries, cultures and professional disciplines. Effective leadership and problem-solving require the ability not only to question, but to change the rules of the game. The MA Creative Leadership works across traditional academic boundaries to help you become a better leader in today’s complex, fast-changing world. The programme is designed to facilitate and explore leadership at multiple levels. It will build on your experience, enabling you to develop a dynamic, flexible approach to the challenges of leadership for the future.
“We can’t solve
problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” Albert Einstein
A trans-disciplinary approach
How will I benefit?
The programme is collaborative in its design and approach, drawing on far-reaching expertise in international business and management, the creative arts, humanities and social sciences.
The programme will enable you to explore what it means to be a leader, to gain a deeper understanding of your own aspirations and approaches, and increase the influence and impact you have in your work.
Our team includes academics and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds – international relations experts, psychotherapists, designers, business managers, actors and writers, lawyers, and many other specialists – working with you to build a genuinely new and holistic view of leadership. Who is the programme for? The MA Creative Leadership is for people who want to explore new ways of thinking about leadership in practice. It is suitable for experienced professionals from varying backgrounds, including those without a traditional education or formal qualifications. It is for people who wish to become more effective leaders in both commercial and notfor-profit organisations, as well as those who want to make a difference in their communities.
You will develop the skills and life-long learning habits needed to become an adaptable, successful leader in contemporary society. How does it work? The MA Creative Leadership programme has a maximum of 15 participants. The programme is structured in five phases, spread over a period of 18 months. Each phase comprises a five-day intensive period when the group comes together, followed by a distance-learning period during which you are able to develop and apply your learning. The group sessions are held at our central London campus in Regent’s Park. During this time, you will be learning through a range of interactive techniques, including simulations, workshops and debates. Between sessions, you will be back at work, using your new knowledge, supported by your tutors through on-line learning activities and individual tutorials.
Phase One Awakening
The first phase challenges long-held and embedded beliefs. It will awaken you to future possibilities for leadership. This period lays the foundations that will support you through the programme and develop the spirit of life-long enquiry and learning. By exploring your own working, creative and life experiences, you will begin to generate the material that you will draw on throughout the programme. You will examine the way that you and others see, think and behave, while developing essential study skills, such as critical reading and debating. Module 1 Awakening the Leadership Experience
Phase Two Reordering
The reordering stage of the programme is an enlightening and penetrating experience. You will make a rigorous evaluation of your current ways of operating and compare them against theory – a sometimes uncomfortable but necessary stage. Current notions of leadership are explored in depth, from a number of different philosophical standpoints. From this, you will begin to define your own view of leadership, as it applies to you and your situation. You will learn to analyse situations and underlying patterns, gaining the skills to develop new concepts of leadership. Module 2 The Four Leadership Villages Module 3 Specifying Contexts and Creative Leadership
Phase Three Negotiation and Commitment
Making sense within a complex system is a requirement of leadership. Learning to use complexity to your advantage demands skills in negotiation, mediation and systemic thinking. The theme of negotiation and commitment is the mid-point of the programme, bridging the exploration of the previous two themes. You will learn to lead strategic processes and meet the challenges of making decisions in a volatile environment. You will explore the concept of emotional intelligence, improving your ability to understand yourself as well as others, and learn the vital skills of mediation and conflict resolution. Module 4 Sense-Making in a Complex World Module 5 Mediation and Emotional Intelligence
Phase Four Embodiment
The fourth phase offers you the opportunity for a deeper personal learning experience. Using the powerful techniques of simulation and applied theatre during the group session, you will be able to test what you have learned so far by taking part in ‘real-world’ scenarios. This is a set of profound experiences that draws on your learning and understanding to establish greater empathy and leadership skills. By this stage you will have built an established set of skills and understanding of leadership, and be ready to prepare for your future role and responsibilities. Module 6 Testing Leadership: a Simulation Module 7 Applying Affective Experience
Phase Five Synthesis
The final stage enables you to integrate the learning from the previous four stages and develop your personal leadership goals. You will learn to apply skills in forecasting, research and presentation. Exploring desired scenarios for the future, you will aim to find a broader perspective, moving beyond current ideas and ways of working, and further adding to your portfolio of leadership skills. This final stage will instil the life-long learning skills and consolidate the personal development strategy that you need for effective leadership. Module 8 Futures Module 9 The Plan!
Applications Successful applicants for the MA Creative Leadership will need: › A minimum of five years’ full-time, relevant work experience › Fluency in English Undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications are welcome but they are not an essential requirement for admission. For full details on admission requirements, tuition fees and making an application, please visit our website at www.regents.ac.uk/macl How will your organisation or community benefit? › Application of new learning Participants will bring a fresh perspective to the real challenges and issues that organisations face › Increased creativity and versatility Participants will have a greater impact on the performance of teams and the success of projects › A deeper, more critical understanding Of changing organisations and the role of leaders in facilitating effective change › Enhanced performance Organisations will benefit from the participant’s increased strategic awareness and problem-solving skills › Building loyalty Developing staff through a programme like this allows organisations to identify and reward their most valuable asset – their people › Future proofing A structured approach to leadership development enables organisations to plan for tomorrow’s management needs
MA Creative Leadership Duration 18 months, part time Start date September
Faculty Members
Anette Lundebye BA, MA, FRSA Sustainability Management
Tom Morgan BA, MA, FRSA Transdisciplinary Design “My job is a great privilege, to serve the community of Creative Leadership offers exciting potentials and inspiring visions of the future, whilst acting and caring in the present.”
“As the systems thinker Donella Meadows said: 'The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being.' This in itself is a creative endeavour!”
Dr Kit Barton PhD Business Ethics
Dr Anton Baumohl PhD, MPhil, FRSA Organisational Behaviour “Leadership is in turmoil because life is in turmoil – uncertainty, mad rates of change and increasing complexity. I believe the MA Creative Leadership programme provides a key to discovering leadership relevant for that context.”
“The MA Creative Leadership programme will allow us all to continue the journey into genuinely new areas of leadership theory.”
Professor Mark Allinson BA, PhD, PGCert in HE, Fellow of HEA Film studies & Psychotherapy
Dr Orit Gal PhD Complexity Management “Small groups can always create positive change; leadership and creativity is all it takes!”
“Leadership and creativity are lived experience, not discrete skills. The experience our participants will bring to this course – and, we hope – the experience they take away, will be diverse.”
Ian Spiby BA, MPhil, LGSM, ADB, Dip.Mus Applied Theatre
Maria Charalambous BA, MPhil Organisational Behaviour
“Creative Leadership really gets below the surface to allow participants to change habitual, learned patterns, to experiment with new ones and to achieve a leadership style suited to them which will be both active and effective.”
“To seek emerging synergies leadership needs to be explored holistically and through a transdisciplinary platform where trusting shared wisdom evolves across and beyond disciplines.”
The course forces you to reconsider everything you thought you knew “about business leadership. In a fast-changing world, it opens your eyes to a range of leadership options. Kevan Jones, MA Creative Leadership, 2014 ” Admissions Department Regent's University London Inner Circle, Regent’s Park London, NW1 4NS United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)20 7487 7505 Fax +44 (0)20 7487 7425 Email exrel@regents.ac.uk Web www.regents.ac.uk
This document is prepared ahead of the academic period to which it relates and changes may occur. The information it contains was correct at the time of publication. © Regent's University London 2014.