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GP 1194 Exec MPA Seminar: Strategic Leadership for Public Service Organizations
Summer 2015
Course Schedule
Wednesday, August 26, 2015 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday, August 27, 2015 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Monday, August 31, 2015 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday, September 1, 2015 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Instructors
Bethany Godsoe, bethany.godsoe@nyu.edu
212 998-7472
Office Hours by appointment
Shifra Bronznick, bronznick@betterorg.com
212-869-9700x217 or 917-971-8626
Office Hours by appointment
Course Description
Strategic Leadership is an intensive leadership course designed to equip mid-career students with the tools,
perspectives, and frameworks for executing high-impact strategy within mission-driven organizations. Student
performance in this course is evaluated on a pass/fail basis while requiring significant reading, in-depth small
group work, intensive classroom participation, rigorous thought and analysis, and well constructed reflection
papers.
Course topics are organized around four themes: 1) cultivating purposeful leadership, 2) analyzing conditions
to build a theory of change, 3) mobilizing commitment to change, and 4) achieving change. Within this fourpart model we will explore conceptual frameworks for understanding high impact organizations and the role
of strategic leadership, analytical tools for developing and assessing strategy, approaches to working with
stakeholders to mobilize commitment, and methods for leading change. We will explore a wide range of
sources including established approaches to strategic planning and management as well as more emergent
practices around innovation. We will draw on the experiences students bring to the classroom through small
group work and discussion.
The course is co-taught by NYU’s associate vice president for student leadership initiatives
(www.nyu.edu/nyuleads) and the director of Advancing Women Professionals (www.advancingwomen.org)
who is also a seasoned organizational consultant. It combines scholarly readings, case studies, and a range of
experiential activities to support application. We recognize the EMPA students are adult professionals who
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learn best when they are responsible for their own education and are given opportunity for application. In
this intensive course, we will delve into the roles and tasks of strategic leaders and the contribution of strategy
to building organizations that achieve lasting impact.
Objectives
The purpose of this course is to develop in the EMPA students an understanding of and an enhanced
capacity to enact the roles and tasks of strategic leadership in the service of building a mission-driven
organization with deep and lasting impact. Specifically, by the end of the course students will be able to:
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Identify the elements of effective leadership for 21st century public challenges;
Apply a set of analytical tools to develop and assess effective strategy;
Work with others to mobilize the commitment required to deliver on a strategy; and
Employ a wide-range of approaches to lead change initiatives.
Course Requirements
Readings
You will need to purchase the books listed below and read them before the first class on August 26th.
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Collins, Jim. Good to Great and the Social Sectors. HarperCollins, 2005.
Heath, Chip and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard, Broadway
Books, 2010.
Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership.
Harvard Business Press, Cambridge, MA. (Pages 1-175)
Kearns, Kevin P., Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success: The Guide to Strategy and
Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Jossey-Bass, 2000 . (Chapter 3, pages 50-107)
Wheatley, Margaret J., Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Future. BK, Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 2005. (Pages 12-113 and 163-179)
Please bring your books to the class in which they are being used.
Other readings, primarily available on NYU Classes, are comprised of journal articles and book chapters and
are listed under each session in the syllabus. Please complete all readings for each session before
coming to class.
Class Participation
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Students must complete all readings before class and engage actively in the discussions and classroom
activities. To participate fully, students should reflect on how their experience supports or challenges the
concepts presented in those readings in preparation for each class. All students are expected to actively
engage in experiential exercises conducted during class time.
Assignments
NOTE THE DUE DATES BESIDE EACH ASSIGNMENT. THREE ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE
PRIOR TO THE START OF THE COURSE.
1. Pre-course form (due August 14, 2015) - By the end of July, we will send you a link to a form to
share the following information about yourself in advance of the course:
a. What brought you to the work you do or hope to do after the EMPA program
b. Two to three talents or experiences that you will draw on and bring to this course
c. The knowledge and/or skills you hope to develop through the EMPA program
d. A leadership question you would like to pursue through the course
2. Reflective essay on leadership theories (due August 19, 2015) - Identify and describe three
critical points from each of the leadership theory readings listed below (full citations can be found in
the list of books above or the reading list for each session below) and synthesize two to three
unifying themes across the theories they present. Include any questions the theories raise for you
about the practice of leadership in public service organizations. This should be a finished and
polished essay (i.e. not an outline or bulleted list of notes). Please come to class ready to discuss the
application of these theories to leadership practice in public service organizations. (Approx. 5 pages)
a. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
b. Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Future
c. Good to Great and the Social Sectors
3. Individual Leadership Challenge for Peer-to-Peer Consultation (due August 25, 2015) - Using
a structured and facilitated process, each student will have the opportunity to receive peer feedback
on a public service leadership challenge s/he wants to tackle in a professional or volunteer context.
Write a one-page description of your Leadership Challenge using the protocol on NYU Classes. Send
the instructors your one-page description by Tuesday, August 25th, and bring five copies to the first
session on August 26th.
4. Immunity Map (due August 31, 2015) - After reading Chapter 9 of Immunity to Change, fill out
the Immunity Map Worksheet available on NYU Classes. Bring your completed map worksheet to
class where you will have an opportunity to get feedback and revise your draft.
5. Public narrative exercise (due August 31, 2015) - Develop a story of self using the public narrative
exercise posted on NYU Classes and come to session three prepared to share your story with others.
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6. Change strategy presentation (TBD - presentations will be scheduled during the fall term) Using one or more of the frameworks from class develop a change strategy for either a real world
organization and/or issue you know and care about or for a case study offered in class. You will
create, submit electronically and deliver a 10 minute presentation on your strategy for your classmates
and a panel of faculty and administrators from NYU Wagner. Your presentation must include the
following:
a. Background & Brief History of the Organization/Issue/Case Study - Include the
organization’s mission, vision, values and strategies as appropriate and relevant and define
the change challenge it currently faces
b. Field/Sector Analysis - Analyze the most important strategic trends in the field or sector
within which the organization operates, including economic and competitive characteristics
of the sector.
c. Organization Analysis - Specify how the organization’s current strengths and weaknesses as
well as trends in its operating environment might impact its ability to achieve its mission.
d. Change Strategy - Develop a set of recommended strategies that address the organization’s
weaknesses, build on its strengths and allow it to respond strategically to its external
environment in order to overcome the change challenge and achieve results.
e. Vision - Articulate a vision for this organization that could be achieved by advancing these
strategies.
f. Implementation Steps and Concerns - Recommend a set of next steps to implement the
strategies proposed. Identify potential roadblocks to implementation and outline a set of
metrics to determine if your strategy solutions are working.
g. Stakeholders - Identify various stakeholders who will need to be engaged and mobilized in
order to make the strategies successful and discuss how to work with each group.
Schedule
Session One: Wednesday August 26, 2015
Cultivating Purposeful Leadership
Learning Objectives
● Review the objectives, assignments and schedule for the course
● Deepen our shared understanding of one another to discover the aspirations, talents and experiences
of the members of your cohort that can be applied to our inquiries into leadership challenges
● Analyze critical frameworks that shape the course and our understanding of strategic leadership in
the public service field, including how best to create shared and collective leadership, how to exercise
adaptive leadership and how to execute strategic leadership at every level from the individual to the
organizational to the systemic.
● Develop a practice for creating and articulating purpose and vision in service of setting direction
within public service organizations.
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Readings
● Collins, Jim. Good to Great and the Social Sectors. HarperCollins, 2005.
● Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership,
Harvard Business Press. (Pages 1-175)
● Wheatley, Margaret J., Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Future. BK, Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 2005. (Pages 12-113 and 163-179)
Session 2: Thursday, August 27, 2015
Analyzing Conditions to Build a Theory of Change
Learning Objectives
● Understand the dynamic nature of the environment in which public service organizations are
operating today
● Examine how to make effective choices for an organization that align its resources with its priorities
for growth and impact.
● Apply tools for assessing an organization and its environment and articulating a theory of change and
intended impact.
Readings
● Kearns, Kevin P., Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success: The Guide to Strategy and
Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Jossey-Bass, 2000. (Chapter 3, pages 50-107)
● Colby, Susan, Nan Stone and Paul Carttar, Zeroing in on Impact, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Fall 2004. (available on NYU classes)
● New York Times Fixes Columns
a. Bornstein, David, Overcoming Poverty’s Damage to Learning, April 17, 2015
b. Bornstein, David, The Excitement of Learning from Profit and Loss, March 6, 2015
c. Rosenberg, Tina, Reaching Math Students One by One, March 13, 2015
Session 3: Monday, August 31st
Mobilizing Commitment to Change
Learning Objectives
● Explore the nature of collective and distributed leadership and strategies for fostering it among
public service organizations.
● Practice building commitment, through the creation of a story of self and a public narrative.
● Understand the role of competing commitments in inhibiting progress and explore strategies for
overcoming those barriers to change.
Readings
● Ganz, Marshall, Public Narrative Workbook. (available on NYU Classes)
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Kegan, Robert and Lisa Laskow Lahey, Immunity to Change. Harvard Business Review Press,
January 2009, Chapter 9, addendum and map. (available on NYU Classes)
CLASSIC: Meyerson, Debra E., Radical Change the Quiet Way, Harvard Business Review, October
2001. (available on NYU classes)
Review: Wheatley, Margaret J., Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Future. BK, BerrettKoehler Publishers, 2005. (Pages 1-113)
New York Times Fixes Column: Rosenberg, Tina, Talking Female Circumcision out of Existence, July 17,
2013.
Session Four: Tuesday, September 1st
Achieving Change
Learning Objectives
● Analyze a set of perspectives on how to lead change, including how to engage in cross-sector and
collaborative change efforts, how to create change from outside a position of authority, and how to
foster conditions for continuous innovation.
● Apply change models to cases from the world around us.
● Synthesize learning across the course to produce a final, shared set of critical components of high
impact organizations and articulate the role of strategic leadership in building such organizations
Readings
● Heath, Chip and Dan, Switch and related handouts on NYU classes
● Review: Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky, The Practice of Adaptive
Leadership. Harvard Business Press, Cambridge, MA. (Pages 1-175)
● Kania, John and Kramer, Mark, Collective Impact in Stanford Social Innovation review, WINTER
2011. (available on NYU classes)
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