Action Inquiry: Transformational Leadership in the Midst of Action

with Bill Torbert and Mary Stacey

Action inquiry is a disciplined practice that will accelerate your learning and transformation as a leader. It also powerfully supports the developmental transformation that is needed in our organizations and large-scale systems today. No matter what the level of your positional power – within your family, community, organization, global network – this practice will enable you to access the transformational potential in every situation. Action inquiry enables you to assess, in real time, the effectiveness of your actions and to create opportunities for mutual letting-go into higher levels of relationship and organization, providing both a competitive and a collaborative advantage.

In this module, you will explore six-dimensional awareness as we create a community of inquiry together. You will share your leadership stories and diagnose difficult conversations. You will learn how to take and share leadership in particular situations. You will also diagnose your own, your associates', your team's, and your organization's developmental "action-logics" (strategies for analyzing the world and reacting to it). In the process you will learn how to foster your own and others' developmental transformation from dependence through in-dependence to inter-in-dependence. You will leave with next steps for transforming your back-home settings.

Module participants are encouraged to read Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership before they arrive.

Interested in assessing your leadership development? Module participants have the option of completing the Harthill Leadership Development Profile (LDP), a highly validated instrument based on the Loevinger and Torbert developmental frameworks. For more information, click here.

Bill Torbert is professor emeritus at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and former Graduate Dean and Director of the College's PhD Program in Organizational Transformation. He received his BA and PhD from Yale University, and taught at Yale, Southern Methodist University, and Harvard prior to joining the Boston College faculty in 1978. He founded the Yale Upward Bound (War on Poverty) program and the Theatre of Inquiry. He has won numerous teaching and research awards.

Bill has consulted widely and served on the Boards of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and P.B.Svigals & Associates (architects), as well as Trillium Asset Management (the first and largest independent social investing advisor). He currently focuses his consulting contributions through his roles as consultant to the Center for Creative Leadership and as Director of Research and Senior Consultant at Harthill UK.

He is the author of the award winning Managing the Corporate Dream (Dow Jones-Irwin, 1987, the Terry Award Finalist book The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry (Sage, 1991), and Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership (Berrett-Koehler, 2004). His April 2005 HBR article "Seven Transformations of Leadership" won the worldwide Association of Executive Search Consultants Award for Best Published Research on Leadership and Corporate Governance.

Mary Stacey is a consultant, executive coach, and managing director of Context Consulting. She works with leadership teams at the intersection of strategy, leadership, and change and is known for designing initiatives that lead to high engagement and sustainable results. Mary's action learning program was designated an enterprise best practice by the CEO of the 57,000 member Canadian Tire Corporation. Her leadership development work has been repeatedly profiled by the US-based Information Management Forum and a case study of her strategic change results is published in The Change Handbook: Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems (2007). "She has a light touch and a powerful impact."

During her decade as professor and faculty development specialist at Sheridan College, Mary founded the Collaborative Learning Network to evolve leadership learning within the framework of human development. She has served on the Board of the Center for Emerging Leadership and the YWCA's Women of Distinction Committee. She complements her MA in organizational leadership and learning, BA in psycholinguistics, and diploma in counseling with certifications in the Leadership Development Profile (LDP) and Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI). 

In partnership with the ALIA Institute, Context offers the Remarkable Leadership Series to senior leaders from all sectors who are expanding their capacity to address complex organizational realities. Mary hosted ALIA's 2008 Intergenerational Leadership Exchange in Ontario.

Shambhala Summer Institute Modules

Action Inquiry: Transformational Leadership in the Midst of Action
with Bill Torbert & Mary Stacey

The Art of Hosting Conversations and Collaborations Across Generations
with Chris Corrigan, Tim Merry, & Barbara Bash

Coping with Chaos: Tools and Practices from Human Systems Dynamics
with Glenda Eoyang & Wendy Morris

Embodied Leadership – Empowered Life
with Wendy Palmer

Leader as Coach
with Sarita Chawla & James Flaherty

Leader as Shambhala Warrior
with Margaret Wheatley, James Gimian, & Jerry Granelli

Organizational Trust: Cultivating Authenticity, Commitment, and Collaboration
with Ruben Perczek, Susan Skjei, & Steve Clorfeine