Arden Institute

EXAMINE. REFLECT. ANALYZE. Lead.

Leadership in a Time of Crisis

Beginning with Cain and Abel, Leadership in a Time of Crisis examines the conflict that has been at the center of human existence since story telling began. This Arden Seminar explores reactions to crisis situations from the earlier times to the present. The material it covers provides insight to crises, whether in organizations, as a national issue, or as a global war.

Tina Packer begins with an analysis of conflict in several Shakespeare plays. Selections from the Bible and the Qu’ran illuminate basic human nature and the origins of violence in society, themes elaborated on by selections from Hsun Tzu and Howard Zinn. A discussion on armed conflict and the conflict of values centers on Homer’s Iliad, Simone Weil’s The Illiad, Poem of Might and Pericles’ Funeral Oration. Writings by Madame de Stael and Nelson Mandela. Eleanor Roosevelt, Nadine Gordimer, Michael Ignatieff and Isaiah Berlin offer considerations of human and universal rights. Leadership on issues of environmental concerns take the dialogue back to Genesis, then on to Thoreau’s writings and to contemporary writers such as Cramer’s Great Waters. The lives and leadership abilities of Camus, Salman Rushdie, Amos Oz, Arundhati Roy and Vaclav Havel serve as models to inspire different modes of leadership, and knowledge that one person willing to proclaim the truth can shift the world.

“Since the seminar, I have been thinking hard about what was said there, the people I met, and the readings. I’ve gone back, particularly to the chapters on leadership, as I try to see my way at work these days. The seminars helped me to start looking at myself differently.”

– An Entrepreneur