The Workshop on the Manifesto for Human(e) Leadership

The Man­i­festo for Human(e) Lead­er­ship is on the one hand a use­ful stim­u­lus for per­son­al reflec­tion on one’s own lead­er­ship qual­i­ties, espe­cial­ly in the form of the recent­ly pub­lished e‑book. On the oth­er hand, its the­ses also pro­vide a use­ful frame­work for an inter­ac­tive work­shop in which lead­ers can reflect and dis­cuss those the­ses and their respec­tive stances. Exclu­sive­ly for my read­ers I offer for free this brand-new work­shop format.

One does not man­age peo­ple — the task is to lead peo­ple. And the goal is to make pro­duc­tive the spe­cif­ic strengths and knowl­edge of each individual. 

Peter F. Drucker

Setup

Six mov­able walls or sim­i­lar are required, on which the six the­ses of the Man­i­festo (in DIN A1 size) can be attached. Adhe­sive dots and sticky notes in two col­ors (green / yel­low) serve as fur­ther work­ing mate­ri­als. The work­shop lasts about three hours. 

Down­load Tem­plate (Pow­er­Point): Ger­man / Englisch

Course of the Workshop

In its sim­plest form, the work­shop is aimed at a group of up to sev­en peo­ple. The work­shop starts with the pre­am­ble of the Man­i­festo for Human(e) Lead­er­ship (and prefer­ably the ref­er­ence to the e‑book).

Pre­am­ble of the Man­i­festo for Human(e) Leadership

The group then pro­ceeds to the first the­sis. There each per­son receives an adhe­sive dot and sticky notes in two col­ors (green and yel­low). First, each per­son silent­ly reflects on the the­sis and deter­mines where he or she sees him­self or her­self on a scale of 1 to 10. In addi­tion, each per­son writes on the green sticky notes what has brought them to this lev­el (prac­tices, meth­ods, books, coach­ing, etc.). On the yel­low notes each per­son writes down what is miss­ing or what they could do to get one step fur­ther up. It is explic­it­ly not about what is miss­ing for a 10, but only about the next tan­gi­ble step.

The first the­sis of the Man­i­festo in the for­mat of the workshop 

After this phase of reflec­tion, the peo­ple intro­duce each oth­er to their posi­tion­ing and explain what brought them there (green notes) and what could move them one step fur­ther (yel­low notes). This should take a max­i­mum of five min­utes per per­son. As with brain­storm­ing, only ques­tions of under­stand­ing are allowed. It is not about right or wrong or about a rank­ing, but about see­ing what is already there and which steps could be tak­en next. 

The group then switch­es to the next the­sis and repeats the pro­ce­dure there. The work­shop ends after the sixth the­sis with a short feed­back round where each per­son describes the most impor­tant insight (“What have I learned today?”). 

Variations

The work­shop can also be con­duct­ed in par­al­lel with up to six groups. The room must then be large enough so that the six groups can dis­cuss in par­al­lel with­out dis­turb­ing each oth­er. When the groups move on to the next the­sis, a facil­i­ta­tor can either replace the poster of the pre­vi­ous group with a new one or briefly sum­ma­rize the results of the pre­vi­ous group like in a World Café.

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By Marcus Raitner

Hi, I'm Marcus. I'm convinced that elephants can dance. Therefore, I accompany organizations on their way towards a more agile way of working. Since 2010 I regularly write about leadership, digitization, new work, agility, and much more in this blog. More about me.

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