(Final curriculum details are pending and subject to change.)
21st Century Leadership: Forecasting the Future (Dr. Sam Potolicchio)
Delivered by Dr. Sam Potolicchio, this course will place a particular emphasis on creativity and forecasting, essential skills for business leaders operating in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.
Influence, persuasion and public speaking (Dr. Sam Potolicchio)
Using techniques and tailored simulations normally reserved for national level political leaders, this session will explore how to get audiences to “lend their ears” and to remember what is said, the two key requisites of influential communication by establishing instant credibility as a competent and trustworthy speaker.
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Develop innovative tools and approaches of persuasion and influence Identify the best methods to capture an audience and hold their attention
- Cultivate the cognitive processes to master verbal fluency Know the secrets of charisma and non-verbal persuasive skills
- Employ the most effective techniques in preparing for a speech or negotiation
Effective decision making (Dr. Sam Potolicchio)
Using techniques and guided simulations normally reserved for global executive business and political leaders, this course will draw on lessons from psychology, communication and organizational behavior, cognitive science and politics to distill the most important skills and qualities of smart decision making in a rapidly changing global landscape.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Identify effective techniques to increase productivity and improve decision making Understand how to overcome indecision
- Cultivate the techniques to utilize conflict and disagreement at the group and institutional level
- Learn how to synthesize information and ask the right questions
- Possess the skills to spot future trends and increase creativity
- Know how to use and control emotions to make critical decisions
Leadership and Communication (Dr. Branden Thornhill-Miller)
What skills will students need to become leaders in an increasingly global world? How can students prepare themselves for global leadership opportunities? These lectures will introduce students to the study of effective leadership practices through issues of psychology, sociology, politics, philosophy and entrepreneurship. This course will highlight the supreme importance, artistry and impact of words in leadership. Students will explore the cognitive biases that drive persuasion, political advertising, communication messages and public approval, interest group strategy, and the impact of new communication technologies.
Rock Your Interview – Simulation (Dr. Sam Potolicchio)
Interviews are one of the most challenging barriers to entry for universities, scholarships, internships, and jobs. The skills to keep poise and presence during an interview are rare–but they can be learned. Here, we will explore what makes a great interview, and how to present one’s self in various interview formats.
Psychology for Global Leaders: Understanding Ourselves and Leading Others in the Modern World – Confidential Consultation & Personalized Tutorial (Dr. Branden Thornhill-Miller)
Drawing on background in several other fields, this course will explore the crucial role that psychology plays in the vast array of challenges facing people and their leaders in the world today. As a starting point, and as part of an ongoing study of young global leadership, students will have the opportunity to take a series of confidential, self-exploratory psychometric tests on a wide range of relevant and important topics (e.g. personality and attachment, leadership styles and related disorders, creativity, cognitive styles, empathy and social networks, formative social attitudes and religious/philosophical beliefs, and cognitive biases in decision-making) that will then be the subject of in-depth discussions aimed at giving them greater insight into themselves, others, and the important roles that they seek to play in the future.
From this vantage point, we will also survey some of the problems and possibilities for our collective future touching upon topics like fundamentalism/ideology and inter-group conflict, behaviour change, the problem of “evil” and the limits of human imagination, the “Social Brain”, the “human difference”, the threat and promise of future technologies, and prospects for the enhancement of human creativity and well-being. Armed with greater self-awareness (and as time permits) students will also be in engaged in personalized leadership- and vision-development exercises.
Effective corporate strategies in a multi-polar world (Joseph P. Quinlan)
Global growth and demand have become more diffused; the post-war, American-led global economy is splintering. This course will outline and examine the shifting contours of global growth/demand, with a particular emphasis on the emerging markets as a new driver of global growth. What countries, sectors, and regions of the world most affected will be examined, along with how businesses are responding.
The primacy of geo-economics and what it means for global business leaders (Joseph P. Quinlan)
The global economic order is being upended. In a sharp break from the norms of the post-war liberal order, the means of war have shifted from traditional military force to economic and financial means to achieve geopolitical objectives. The Trump Administration has joined the fray, using the massive US market/economy as leverage with both traditional trading partners and strategic competitors (China). This course will examine the key challenges and risks to businesses in light of rise of global geo-economics.
The new cold war between the United States and China (Joseph P. Quinlan)
This course will provide a sweeping view of the rise of China and its implications for the world’s long-time hegemon: the United States. Can America and China escape Thucydides’s trap—or war? The course will examine critical tensions points, China’s global ambitions, third-party effects, and potential ways for America to respond.