2014 Class Returns from Mt. Adams

(click on image for pictures)

Dear friends and colleagues - Leadership and Hardiness 2014 recently returned from Mt. Adams with many memorable moments and epic experiences. It was a long awaited journey with tremendous introspective work and much growth. Many of the lessons gained on the mountain still need time for the introspective reflection that leads to self discovery. These courageous individuals made a choice to literally take their graduate studies to new heights and provocatively test leadership and resilience principles they have been studying not only in the class, but throughout the Organizational Leadership Program at Gonzaga University. Our class embraced the Aristotelian tradition that "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them". 

Theoretically, the course integrated a blend of didactic but mostly experiential learning captured from learning about hardiness through Frankl's narrative account, film on stress/adversity, an intentional plan for self care and lifestyle change, a personal reflection on resilience, a team case study of a resilient organization, and weekly discussions. The growth was developmentally strategic, providing opportunities for scaffolding knowledge and experiences. Kolb, largely influenced by Dewey, Lewin, Piaget, and others deconstructed experiential learning as involving: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. We are interested in learning through reflection on doing given that we have been actively involved in the experience throughout the course and certainly on Mt. Adams.It is following the experience on Mt. Adams and ongoing reflection that we will begin to use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience of the past 10 weeks. Finally, it is experiential learning and reflection that may contribute to a more complex and higher order understanding of leadership and resilience and how it was gained from this experience.

Students from our course will now take time to soak up and share the experience of the course with all of you. Their reflections are simply a subjective story - a narrative on how the course content, teammates, and experiential exercise on Mt. Adams impacted learning, growth, search for meaning, will to meaning, '(trans)formation', leadership, strength, clarity, and future. They will consider how this course and final experiential exercise, which required a physical, mental and spiritual challenge provided a new context for leadership and/or coping with adversity. Also, their reflections may inspire them to share how they utilized principles of hardiness towards strategic resilience and success of the larger group. Principles of strategic resilience were vividly engaged on the mountain to support three teammates for the success of the larger group. 

Climbers - What did you learn about yourself from the context of this course? What do you plan to do with content gained from this course? What are some implications of these experiences for organizations or your personal life. You have license to be creative in how you capture this reflection and how you share images of your story. These are just some simple thoughts to get you thinking about this final reflection. 

Most importantly - Have FUN and ENJOY the reflection.

Please comment on this blog with your reflective posts when ready.