COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 296-1

COURSE TITLE: Natural Leadership

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 Unit

INSTRUCTOR: Whitney Hischier, Rajiv Ball and Sandra Geisler

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Saturdays June 7 & 21, 9AM-5PM

PREREQUISITE(S): None

This class is dual-listed with the MBA for Executives Program.

Context
With a strong push to innovate beyond the classic business school model of “sage on a stage”, Haas has and is developing a number of experiential learning programs in its degree granting courses.  This new course allows MBA students to work with horses to build the mindset and skills required to lead others.

Why work with horses?
Horses have become increasingly popular in the treatment of medical conditions such as autism,
as made popular by Rupert Isaacson work “The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son”
(2009). However, their use in the field of leadership development is still a niche but growing
offering and has been used from a range of teaching bedside manner to future doctors (Stanford
Medical School) to assisting nurses with work-related stress and burnout (Brigham Young).
Offering students the opportunity to work with horses (on the ground, not horse riding) for their
leadership development has a number of benefits:

Horses create a “zero-base”. Very few students know intuitively how to work with a
horse. This provides a zero-base – an even starting point – from which students have to
work. For most students, this zero-base is outside their natural comfort zone, thereby
providing a fertile ground for learning to occur.

Leading a horse offers multiple and rich analogies to leading others. Broadly speaking,
to lead a horse, you need to provide it with a vision, alignment and renewal; these are the
three typical phases that any leader has to go through to successfully lead others

Horses provide honest, accurate feedback in real time. Horses respond instantly and
without judgment to our intent, our energy and our behavior. As prey animals they are
highly attuned to non-verbal cues. Horses cannot role play; they can only real play. If
you want to horse to follow you, then you need to real play your leadership.

During the course, the students would work at a local Berkeley stable (most likely in Walnut Creek or Briones) with a selected group of horses to explore the multiple dimensions of leading others. Students will be asked to bring a specific work relationship/situation that they would like to work on during the program in areas that include:

Aligning your intent and your behaviors
Getting others to join your cause, particularly influence without authority
Setting a joint goal/modus operandi
Leading from the front/from behind
Working as a team
Giving feedback
Resilience and over-coming obstacles
Rewarding others

During the course, students will work through a number of cycles of:
Identifying a dimension of leading others that they are grappling with today (typically
from the list above), including a current or recent real life situation (such as leading and
motivating an inherited and disenfranchised team)
Working with a horse and a skilled instructor to explore various related topics such as:
How do you take full ownership for the outcome of a relationship?
How do your mental models limit your effectiveness in forming relationships?
How do you lead others authentically while remaining true to yourself?
Working in the class room on the same issues, through real plays and reverse real plays.

The course will alternate between hands-on work with the horses, and
traditional classroom teaching that includes plenary sessions and small group work.

Program
Grading would be based on the following deliverables:
(1) self-assessment going into the program – 10%
(2) learning commitments at the end of the first day which translate into one small
thing the student will do differently at work on Monday 20%
(3) one reflection paper at the end of the program on what the student has learned
about themselves as a leader and what three things they are working on to make
them into more effective leaders 50%
Participation: 20%

The instructor is Whitney Hischier, Lecturer at Haas and graduate of several Equine Guided Education courses. Whitney is supported by Rajiv Ball, Lecturer at Haas and Sandra Geisler, Executive Coach at THNK, the Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership. Sandra is a leadership development expert, trained coach and has worked extensively with horses on the topic of leadership development (see www.lighthorse.nl).