Image: Olivia Basil
Leaders as Futurists
Six-month peer mentorship program
I designed and delivered a six-month peer mentorship program for members of International Leadership Association (ILA), Washington, DC. (online; during pandemic).
This program brought together decision-makers from Canada, Sweden, the U.K., the U.S., and Zimbabwe to develop their capacities for strategic foresight and future-oriented leadership.
The program featured a comprehensive curriculum I developed to explore the relationship between philosophical approaches to future thinking and practical leadership application. Through carefully structured online learning conversations and facilitated group sessions, participants examined how their conceptual frameworks about the future directly influenced their decision-making processes and organizational strategies.
Participants gained entry through an application process administered by the ILA, ensuring a cohort of committed professionals ready to engage deeply with the material. A distinctive element of the program was my focus on eliciting each leader's implicit philosophy of future orientation, connecting these foundational perspectives to concrete actions in their professional contexts.
This international collaboration created a uniquely valuable cross-cultural exchange during a period of unprecedented global disruption, demonstrating how intentional leadership development works in challenging circumstances. Sadly, cut short due to COVID.
Challenge: Developing a cross-cultural leadership development program during pandemic restrictions that would effectively build foresight capabilities among international decision-makers despite physical separation, varying cultural contexts, and the urgent disruption of established leadership patterns.
Methodologies: Global peer mentorship structure connecting leaders across four countries, virtual facilitation techniques adapted for international audiences, curriculum design integrating philosophical inquiry with practical application, structured learning conversations focused on future-oriented leadership approaches, participant-driven exploration of personal foresight philosophy and implementation.
Connected Projects: International Leadership Association engagement, Strategic Foresight certificate program (University of Houston/Houston Foresight), pandemic-era leadership adaptation initiatives, Leadership Big Bend board service, formal graduate research in organizational leadership and social futures (Royal Roads University), Superscans original horizon scanning reports, Futurodex, Technika.
Insights: Leadership effectiveness increasingly depends on developed foresight capabilities, philosophical approaches to the future directly influence leadership action (there is an amazing variety of not just what people are trying to create in their future, but more importantly how they are thinking about things: how me make meaning drives our actions), cross-cultural dialogue enhances leadership perspective in uncertain conditions, virtual environments can support meaningful leadership development when thoughtfully designed, crisis contexts heighten receptivity to future-oriented leadership approaches.
Outcomes: Successfully connected diverse decision-makers across four countries during lockdown periods, established framework connecting philosophical approaches to practical leadership actions, created enduring international peer relationships among participants, developed adaptable curriculum for future-focused leadership development, established hands-on expertise in leadership foresight methodologies.
Applications to future work: Curriculum design approach transferable to other leadership development contexts, virtual confidential facilitation techniques applicable to global collaborative initiative, cross-cultural mentorship model relevant to international organizational development, future-oriented leadership frameworks valuable across sectors and geographies, methodology for connecting philosophical orientation to practical action.