A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS I love a good all-rise story. Don’t you? And sometimes in my enthusiasm for the rising, I forget the hard work of disturbing. One of my favorite rules of thumb when leading change is this: All we really know for sure is that we can disturb the system. I’ve spent a great deal of time and effort trying to learn and teach others to disturb systems in more productive directions.
CREATE Portage County is the most disruptively productive force that I’ve ever encountered. CREATE’s community, county and regional interventions are simple, powerful and enabling. CREATE provokes a tide of local connection that lifts our entire state. When we established the UW-Stevens Point MBA, Kevin Bahr, Ph.D., imagined a nine-credit track of classes focused on leading the Wisconsin economy. I’ve heard over and over again that this focus is one of the most unique elements of our applied curriculum. Pairing Leah C. Knights and Greg Wright in our first MBA Thriving Communities Fellowship is one of the best parts of my job. It’s one thing to promise applied learning and thriving communities. It is an entirely different thing to watch two superstars like Leah and Greg learn, disturb, transform and produce together.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Fellowship Introduction..........................................4-5 Transformational Leadership.................................6-7 Agility.......................................................................... 8 Agility Applied............................................................. 9 Transformed Lives are Transformed Systems........ 10 Permission to Play, Rapid Prototyping....................11 Embrace Tension.....................................................12 A Nonlinear Journey.................................................13 Change Requires Disruption................................... 14 Championing Connection........................................15 Credits/Thank You................................................... 16 About Leah Knights................................................. 17 MBA Program Faculty and Staff..............................18 About UWSP.............................................................19
I hope you enjoy Leah’s CREATE story. May we continue to all rise together!
All my best, Lyna Matesi, Ph.D. MBA Director
Digital version available for download on the College of Professional Studies blog at blog.uwsp.edu/cps.
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