Emerging Paradigms Course in Paraguay

Today is the first day of teaching a new course called Emerging Paradigms in Leadership. I am in the city of Asuncion, Paraguay. This is my second visit to this city. The first time I was with both Omar Gava and Brian Newman, when we launched the Master's Program for Londrina.

I have been working on this course for some time, although the last month has been a time of intensive work (since I had fallen a bit behind in preparation).

There are several very good textbooks that I use for this course. One of them I have just finished re-reading and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I read it.  That book is:  Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts. It is by David Dotlich and Peter Cairo.

I usually refer this as the book on "counter-intuitive leadership." Their thesis is simple. There is a conventional wisdom about leadership that is wrong on ten points. A new wisdom is needed for the cultural time in which we live and work. If leaders do not learn to go against their intuition and gut feel, they are going to be in trouble.

They look at issues of personal leadership, team leadership and organizational leadership. Pick up a copy of the book and work your way through it.

Of course, my challenge this week is to find ways to contextualize the insights of Dotlich and Cairo (and many others) into the Latin context of Paraguay. As you remember - pray for me.

Brian Rice