Course syllabus

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Course syllabus

SEE040 Leadership for sustainability transitions lp1 HT19 (7.5 hp)

The course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment.

Information about the course can also be found in the study plan.

Contact details

Examiner:

John Holmberg, john.holmberg@chalmers.se

Course coordinator:
Primary contact

Linnea Johansson, linnea.johansson@chalmers.se, 031-772 64 69

Other staff:

Johan Larsson, johan.larsson@chalmers.se,

Gavin McCrory, mccrory@chalmers.se,  

Kristina Hojcková, hojckova@chalmers.se,

Guest lecturers:

Göran Carstedt, previously director of Volvo Cars France, IKEA North America, IKEA Europe, director at Clinton Climate Initiative and more, goran@carstedt.se

Bernard LeRoux, Dialogues, bernard@dialogues.se 

Erik Wallnér, Solcellskollen (founder and CEO)

Communication with the staff should primarily go through to the course coordinator Linnea Johansson, either in person or through email or telephone. Do not use canvas for communication with the teachers.

Course representatives

Course purpose and aim

The course provides theoretical perspectives, methods and tools for leading sustainability-driven innovation in society. The leadership builds on backcasting as an over-arching approach, where you develop a leadership on three levels: leading yourself, leading together with others, and leading for humanity. This leadership is introduced through literature and lectures, is applied in a real-world case "a Good Life on Campus", and is developed through individual exercises and reflection. Based on this foundation, you will in your future career be able to lead complex transitional processes involving stakeholders from different societal sectors.

Some of the students attending the course choose to deepen their leadership capabilities further by conducting their master thesis at the Challenge Lab during the spring.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

1. Describe critical sustainability challenges and reflect upon necessary paradigm shifts.
- This includes relating challenges to the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals.

2. Conduct 'future studies'.
- This includes backcasting and scenario planning methodologies to create visions, test robustness and handle uncertainties.

3. Clarify one's own values and strengths.
- This also includes understanding the values and strengths of others, tensions, conflicts and contradictions.

4. Apply systems thinking.
- This includes zooming across scales, the implication of universality, understanding dynamics through causal loop diagramming, identifying root-causes, understanding systems from different sustainability dimensions, and from a socio-technical perspective.

5. Apply transition strategies and challenge-driven innovation processes.
- This includes identifying leverage points in multi-level systems, understanding "lock-in" effects, developing conceptual solutions (design thinking), iteration and experimentation (entrepreneurial thinking), and the ability to put knowledge into practice.

6. Apply tools to enable and facilitate dialogue in a multi-stakeholder setting.
- This relates to the abilities to learn from others, to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others. This includes techniques on collaboration and participatory problem-solving, dialogue tools, co-creation, perspective awareness, and active listening.

7. Apply critical thinking.
- This includes both critical reflection inwards (owns values, norms and actions) and outwards (phenomena in the outside world).

8. Integrate problem identification and problem-solving frameworks.
- This is the overarching ability to comprehend, integrate and scrutinize the frameworks and tools presented in this course.

9. Lead oneself, lead together with others and lead for humanity.
- This includes the ability to develop one's own leadership capabilities based on the theories and tools, case assignment and reflection assignments in this course.

Course literature

At course start, the literature list can be found in modules under Course introduction and general information. The list contains all literature which is included in the course, both mandatory literature and further reading. All articles can be found under their respective Module.

Course design

Content

Backcasting from sustainability principles is a key methodology during the whole course. Backcasting is helpful to break free from path-dependency and free the mind by starting from a desirable sustainable future and consist of four steps:

  1. Frame conditions for a sustainable future on a level of principles
  2. Analyse gaps between the present situation and sustainable futures
  3. Identify leverage point interventions for bridging the gaps
  4. Create strategies for realising the leverage point interventions

As well as in the backcasting approach, the course applies two perspectives for a holistic approach in dealing with complex challenges:

  • Outside-in perspective; including system dynamics, transition and design as tools to understand and deal with the external requirements global sustainability put on systems. 
  • Inside-out perspective; including methods and tools to understand and reflect on your own values, strengths and visions - as well as to understand and lead in the interaction with different stakeholders within the complex system.

In a case conducted during the course, you will, through group assignments, identify needs and possible ideas that can point the way for further solutions - for bridging the gap found between the sustainable future and the current situation. 

Organisation

For each of the steps in the backcasting approach, the two perspectives (Outside-in and Inside-out) will be addressed by three ways of learning:

  • Theory and Tools: Lectures and literature with introduction of tools.
  • Case Work: A hands-on case where the tools are applied in real-world sustainability challenges on Chalmers campus.
  • Reflection: A reflection paper on leadership encompassing the whole course where you will reflect upon the tools and their use in the case. The purpose of the reflection is to digest the knowledge and experiences (double-loop learning) and relate it to leadership abilities and to your own values.

To apply the theory and tools to address sustainability challenges in the socio-technical system, you will be introduced to a hands-on case. The case will be using Chalmers campus development as a live lab for initiating solutions - connecting the gap between the sustainable future and the current situation.
To be able to lead in a dialogue, while working on the case, you will also explore your own personal values and strengths (Inside-Out perspective).
To be able to better understand the system and the current situation, you will in group work - be interacting with stakeholders, thereby getting a broader picture of the overall challenge and understand the system from different perspectives. In this part, dialogue tools are introduced and used hands-on. The dialogue and the application of causal loop diagrams, enables the identification of points for intervention in the system.
The project ideas, identified in this course, will serve to unlock and facilitating change in the sub-system, and subsequently to initiate possible transformation of the larger system.

Examination

The course is examined through three activities:

  • Mid-term exam to test understanding of core concepts
  • Reflection paper with a half-time submission, peer-review and final submission
  • A case

The case takes part during the entire course, and examination is based on group hand-ins and presence during mandatory events

Criteria for grades U, 3, 4, 5:

A total of 100 points will be handed out throughout the course that will be translated into grades. The points are distributed as follows:

  1. Written examination
    Written mid-term examination (Sw: “dugga”) on key concepts from the course literature related to the overall process, backcasting step 1 and backcasting step 2 (excluding Causal Loop Diagramming). Concerned articles are marked with “X” in the literature list. The exam will take place in Vasa 6 on September 27, 8:00-9:45. No aids are permitted during the exam.
    Contributes up to 25 points to the total grade (≥13 points corresponds to grade 3, ≥ 17 points corresponds to grade 4 and ≥ 21 corresponds to grade 5).
  2. Personal Reflection Assignment
    Completed Personal Reflection Assignments. For detailed information about the reflection paper and its deadlines, see the Personal reflection documentation.
    Contributes up to 40 points, where grade 3 gives 22 points, grade 4 gives 31 point, and grade 5 gives 40 points.
  3. Case
    Group assignments connected to the case. Mandatory attendance in workshops (marked workshop 1-11 in the schedule), group work and final presentation. Demonstrated understanding and application of course tools. For a detailed list of assignments in the case, see the Case overview. The group work will be done in teams of about six students.
    Passed group assignments is compulsory in order to pass the course and contribute 35 points to the total grade.

The points are translated into grades as follows:

Accumulated points

Grade

<70 p

U

70-79,5 p

3*

80-89,5 p

4*

>90

5*

*Assuming passed case, reflection assignment and mid-term exam.

Schedule

The schedule with the latest updates can be found at TimeEdit.  A visual schedule can be found on the Home page. Should there be any inconsistencies between these, follow TimeEdit.

After the course

This course can be seen as a preparatory course for Challenge Lab. Those who participate in the course will have an advantage when applying for a Challenge Lab master thesis. For more information about Challenge Lab, see www.challengelab.chalmers.se.

 

 

Please see the course PM for further details.

Course summary:

Date Details Due