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LeaderLEVEL @F-L-O-W

Introduction: Context for LeaderLEVEL
 
Welcome!

Let’s begin with an oblique entry:

[FYI: there are three directions used in discussion of LeaderLEVEL™: horizontal, vertical, and oblique; each representing a directional vector in development.]


Teaching for Understanding

Subsumed within Willis and Willis’s (1996) criticism of PPP [Present-Practice-Produce] is Perkins (1993) theory of Teaching for Understanding (TFU).  This similarly focuses on learner development and learner needs, in making the critical distinction between learning and understanding.

According to Perkins (1993), learning refers to a level of study where students are prepared to recall or recite what they have memorized for a test or a test-like situation.

Perkins argues that learning at this level is mostly meaningless in the real world.

On the other hand, understanding is the level of study where a learner is able to manipulate their acquired knowledge and practically apply it when necessary.

Demonstrations of such manipulation of knowledge are termed Performance(s) of Understanding (POU).

Under this conception of classroom practices, ongoing assessment of POU’s (both teacher-student and student-student) can and should replace traditional tests that only focus on shallow learning, and are not part of a plan for ongoing assessment.

In contrast, the usual practice of PPP includes assessments only through mini-tests or end-of-course examinations that focus solely on how well the learners have memorized the course content presented.  As will be argued below, it is necessary for the learners to manipulate the language in situations of authentic or semi-authentic communicative use, for assessment methods to be adapted to measuring understanding as defined by Perkins (1993) theory.



[Please note there is a direct, although seemingly indirect correlation to learning and understanding, and being able to speak a language–complete with lexicon and lexemes–which is in or at a different level. People think that anyone can learn a language given the right learning, but truly understanding is another question entirely and the premise of why we need a different way to assess how leaders understand, versus learn (while important) is key to the direct correlation of the understanding of the context for LeaderLEVEL™]

Why LeaderLEVEL™?

[LeaderLEVEL™ is part of a Meta-systematic Approach to Dimensional Leadership Development being formalized in 2013, by Mike R. Jay, at Leadership University @F-L-O-W.  LeaderLEVEL™ is combined with LeaderCAPABLE™, LeaderBIAS™, LeaderSTYLE™, and LeaderROLE™, up until now form the structure for the LeaderSYSTEM™ emerging for 21st Century Leaders from Leadership University.]

Aside from the multiple reasons for LeaderLEVEL™, the most glaring is the understanding of how to scaffold leaders for optimal performance, which can only be done if we understand how the leader will reason in multiple domains, and across domains–scaffolding needs are "drastically" different for each level and role.



The chart, taken from a good example of a meta-systematic discussion of EFL Training, is key for starting to begin to understand the dynamics at play regarding LeaderLEVEL™, which like the above excerpt helps us understand some basics about emerging leadership dilemmas in a complex world.

The Top 10 issues for leader support and scaffolding challenges:

1) Complexity is the provocateur at the root of all problems.

2) Leaders without support function at a lower than desirable level.

3) Understanding the level to begin with is key to begin to scaffold/design/resource the level of support!

4) Noting an array of factors such as capability, bias, style, level and role all go into the equation of job fitness for leaders.

5) Unraveling leadership success reveals that leaders are in over their heads and when failing to understand, create more problems than they solve.

6) The lack of clarity in noting the variety of differences in leaders–including to a much larger extent than we previously imagined–reasoning level leads people who hire, train, develop and mentor leaders at a clear disadvantage.

7) As complexity accelerates in a non-linear fashion, conventional leadership for strategic leadership will be as much a disaster as an outright gamble for the future of organizational well-being and results; and thus increasingly fraught with disappointments, usually blamed on leaders and not the system which recruits, hires, trains, develops, and promotes them.

8) Finding key levers in differentiating the ability of leaders to match up to requirements may result in the increased use of the way in which we assess, and coach how leaders reason.

9) This is new ground and difficult, filled with illusions an delusions about how we develop leaders, and thus requires high degrees of skepticism, caution, and responsibility.

10) The challenge for the future will be to identify, attract, retain and develop leaders and leadership to solve increasingly complex problems which have multiple solutions and significant social trade-offs.

What is LeaderLEVEL™?

This program is an attempt to formalize a system which I have been discovering, using, and developing for more than a decade, to provide guidance for design of how we assess leader reasoning, potential, and fit for leadership situations.

In this first R&D Phase, I am bringing into the light a variety of my thoughts, through which codification is emerging in how we have to approach the assessment of leadership; both the leaders and the systems involved and intertwined, which articulate how leaders reason hierarchically; and develop skill in solving problems, which can be assessed through the process of hierarchical complexity. This doesn’t replace either horizontal or oblique complexity, rather, it adds an important element, which has been missing in conventional leadership assessment.

It goes without saying that the work of leadership is also critical to the design process, and we will cover this gambit in a program to follow called LeaderROLE™.

In a side note that has to be mentioned in the context of LeaderLEVEL™ is LeaderSYSTEM™, which is a paradigm that has to be constructed as a generic process to guide leadership formation and emergence over time.

We can’t forget about either the pieces, or the context for LeaderLEVEL™, as they are all critical to relate and understand, not just learn.

Finally in our Introduction of LeaderLEVEL™ context:

For now, I am going to focus on discussing the larger system of hierarchical skill theory (combinatorial approach for hierarchical complexity and it’s roots, coupled with skill theory and it’s divergence).

In the following four sessions, I will attempt to articulate with more clarity the following:

1) What are the levels that leaders can be assessed to reason about.

2) Where did the assessment model come from and what are the elements that are actually measured.

3) How have I morphed these components together to create practical advice and application.

4) How LeaderLEVEL™  becomes a part of the leadership "understanding".

Please join me in this journey and the subsequent discovery of 21st Century Leadership.

You may register for this program beginning now and until June 14, 2013, for a fee of $197, and $297 afterwards.   The class schedule is:
Tuesday, June 11 – session 1
Wednesday, June 12 – session 2 
Monday, June 24 – session 3
Tuesday, June 25 – session 4
Special BONUS class on Wednesday, June 26 titled “Applying levels of LeaderLEVEL”.

NOTE: All classes will be recorded for you incase you want to re-listen or if you miss a class.

To get this program and 9 other programs for a "certificate" price, see our 2013 offer here.



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