Vision

Necessity or choice

The times are such that leadership and management skills can make the difference. Global competition is increasing, technological innovations are changing the face of the world, our democratic institutions are all but obvious, and major tensions and conflicts are emerging that put our belief in progress into perspective. ‘Managing’ defensive reactions to market developments and social changes often lead to rigidity and stagnation. A clear vision of future dynamics – the risks and the opportunities – is needed as much as a vision of the role of your own organisation in it, and, above all, in your own role as a manager.

Unfortunately, the insight into the cohesion and the dynamics of contemporary questions is limited by our specialist and often unilateral way of thinking. Subsequently, too little time remains for reflection, deepening, and inspiration.

A Comenius Course offers an academic context within which fixed notions can be reviewed and in which you are invited again to allow yourself to be inspired and to convert this into a deepening of your own leadership.

Principles

The Comenius Courses focus on the quality of leadership. Other than business schools, Comenius is grafted onto the principles of the classic, field-transcending university/academy. Not ‘cold’ academic knowledge is central, but knowledge that has been enriched with the personal visions and life experiences of teachers who are leading authorities in their fields.

Traditionally the classic university focuses on:

  • The development of field-transcending and founding knowledge;
  • Versatile education (i.e. not just ‘cold’ intellectual knowledge);
  • Orientation on fundamental questions that result in ground-breaking insights;
  •  A learning context in which learning from each other is also important.

Comenius considers this academic tradition to be a source of inspiration and innovation. Vision and leadership development are facilitated in Comenius courses by emphasising:

  • Paradigms and paradigm changes. In fact, the capacity to change contexts is one of the basic characteristics of leadership;
  • The diversity (of fields of knowledge, observations, 'truths’). The underlying assumption is that versatility is a required precondition for leadership;
  • The 'universitas'; the underlying diversity (in insights, experiences, etc.) of the participants themselves is utilised to shape group learning.