decision-making

The word “crisis” came from the Greek verb “krinein”, meaning to separate, distinguish and judge in order to decide a course of action in a difficult context. Hippocratus was said to have used it during the turning point of a disease when a decision had to be taken, resulting in a change for the better (recovery) or for the worse (death).

Therein lies the dilemma and complexity of a crisis for we know there’s a lot more hidden behind that one decision. There’s no playbook to be had and no best practice to follow because by it’s very nature, a crisis is unexpected, mired in uncertainty and disruptive as well as destabilizing. The thought of undoing a condition or situation forever is enough to overwhelm and paralyze.

What happens when a multitude of decisions are needed, all at once, and their chain reaction has the propensity to create wicked problems of their own — ones that will change the question of life and death on more than one dimension?

The COVID-19 pandemic started out as a health crisis, but very quickly, it escalated into multi-faceted socio-economic crises of a monumental scale. How do we brave these times to thrive and not just survive? The future looks decidedly choppy, yet offer hope when we look hard enough for new possibilities.

Our spring e-Xperience opens up space for us to tackle this and dwell on the courageous lessons from the field and research, covering: 

• Resilience and Leadership: how is this transposed from self to a systemic change-making scale? What does leadership in crisis look like?
• Decision-making: how do we deal with conflicting agendas and paradoxes amidst moving targets and unknowns? Where does ‘Ethics’ fit?
• Bouncing forth vs back: what do we need to pivot in ambiguity towards opportunity in a scenario of shifting futures and long-drawn crises ramifications? How will these define needed and transposable skills?
• The World Beyond Crises: Is there such a thing? What are we learning? What will work, education, institutions and society look like if we re-frame crises as windows of opportunity?
• Change agency: how do we help our stakeholders and clients re-invent themselves and others for a tomorrow that’s constantly shifting?

The scale and complexity of our times calls for retrospective foresight on a communal and societal level. It is a call for us to brave the crises collectively so self-organizing systemic change for good might get a chance for success.

The wealth of our community and network never fails to enrich our e-Xperience. We are fortunate to have academicians, practitioners, researchers and leaders from all walks of life who care about sharing and inter-connecting, fuelling further learning and progress about systemic and self-organizing change.

For our Spring e-Xperience, we are welcoming:

The Spring e-Xperience will be delivered 100% remotely. All sessions will be moderated conversations and interactive micro workshops. In view of our global community the e-Xperience will accommodate as many time zones as possible.

Unless otherwise indicated, sessions will be recorded and made available for registered tCL 2021 members.
Come ready to participate, challenge, co-create, learn and network for collective change.

Please check the programme book with information on speaker biographies, session synopses, and suggested readings.