Story telling

The following article reminded me of the importance of storytelling highlight by the Bennis and Lincoln readings:

Heroes Wanted in Climate Science Story

Some thoughts

These are just some of my thoughts moving forward after class Thursday:

Leaders need to be able to inspire others to believe in their message. In trying to understand how to inspire students to be good leaders I must admit a top down approach is one that I have been using as a crutch. I have found that identifying a truly bottom up approach to engaging student leadership has been proving itself to be a challenge.

Inspiring leadership on campus needs to be about empowering students and the campus community. The students need to be engaged with and on campus. Engaging and empowering students with the soul of the university is important to achieving a positive culture on campus.

The soul of the university is its underlying common goal, the message that it is trying to get its community to embody. It is more than just graduating people with degrees. It is about instilling values and understanding, and empowering students to become responsible professionals that value their experiences. The soul is what makes alumni give back, and encourages students to get involved. With-out soul any organization is going to fail. Without soul a university becomes a factory for producing trained people with debt.