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The Power of Being Different
Introduction Audience: This is a web-based course that can be
used as a functional instrument of education by individual entrepreneurs, small business owners, as well as all other
interested adults who want to improve their personal leadership skills in
day-to-day operations. Purpose: This course discusses the necessity
of being different as a powerful tool toward achieving success. Coursework focuses on increasing the
insight of course participants in the importance of moving away from incrementalism
(continuous innovation that guarantees safe but small successes), and getting
used to radicalism (innovating in a complete different field: doing what
others haven't thought of yet). The course will provide the basics one can
maintain to preserve an innovative spirit and assure impulses for constant
improvement. These basics will be built upon the following self-analyzing tasks
for students: · Formulating and presenting their self-perceived strengths · Considering and presenting their mission and vision statement · Formulating their life goals · Defining their target group · Formulating ways to maintain relationships with revolution potential. · Formulating ways to detach themselves from the status quo · Formulating a declaration of personal independence · Formulating their next plan of action. The course will also emphasize on
the disadvantages of being risk-averse, no matter how comfortable the status
quo may be. This will be incorporated
in the postings and discussions when working on the formulation of ways to detach
oneself from the status quo, in the second week of the course. Issues such as
diversity, change of daily rituals, and empathic listening to the self and
others, will be conferred. The points of view of several management gurus on
revolutionary management will be analyzed. Suggestions on how to maintain
revolutionary leadership will be made. Note: It is highly recommended, although not required, that you take the lessons in order. Each lesson assumes knowledge of information covered in previous courses.
This course contains the following modules and lessons: Module 1: Incrementalism v Lesson 1: What is incrementalism? v Lesson 2: How to eradicate incrementalism from your life. This module discusses the problem
that most large, established organizations, as well as people are facing once
they gained importance: incrementalism. This is the process of endlessly
renovating and improving, and focusing on the most obvious competitors,
resulting in the great lag that finally costs them their place in the market. · Organizations do that by following the familiar path that all competitors are following, instead of looking for other opportunities · People do that by allowing themselves to get caught up in running from one meeting to another without creating time for something completely different, which is THE way to keep an open and novel mind.
(Gary Hamel) Module II: Radicalism: Becoming a Revolutionary v Lesson 3: Formulating Personal Strengths. v Lesson 4: Formulating personal mission/vision statement v Lesson 5: Formulating most important current goal + Plan of action. v Lesson 6: Identifying your Target group. v Lesson 7: Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources. v Lesson 8: Writing your Declaration of Personal Independence. This module reviews possible ways to
get into the lead and stay there. The phenomenon of radicalism will be
discussed. The need to "look in different places", and "how to become a
gray-haired revolutionary" (Hamel, 2000), will be focused on. Participants will
be encouraged to offer suggestions on how to become a revolutionary in their
own company or life. Some appropriate components of how to obtain a state of mind to detach oneself from the status quo and start moving ahead will be presented, and then discussed. This is also the week where we will
develop a dialogue on some important issues to make renewal a constant factor
in your life. Some of Tom Peters' hints from his book The Brand You 50
will be reviewed. Students will be given assignments and exercises to assist
them in formulating their own "mode" in becoming and staying
radicalists. Final assessment: v Lesson 9: Writing your essay: guidelines. This part, which is presented at the end of module II, evaluates your comprehension of the course content. Now, let's take a closer look at the modules. | |||||||||