MULTI-LEVEL ISSUES IN LEADERSHIP
Course Description
PRLC 2820 was an exploration of intense research and shifting perspectives. We spent the entire semester digging into one specific topic in order to learn how our chosen issues contains infinite factors and unending stakeholders.
I opted to investigate genetically modified organisms. I personally didn't hold any strong opinions on the issue, but was well aware of the ongoing public debate. It felt the majority of what I was reading about the topic was strongly opinionated and I wanted to really dive into the facts and ideologies behind the body of public discussion.
Course Reflection
This class was an exercise in thought leadership. For the previous few classes, the majority of the work focused around what it meant to be a leader in a group. For the most part, we focused on the personal relationship side of leadership – how best to grow your ability to inspire those around you toward accomplishing a common goal. The premise of this class was very different: we worked on our own to create a body of work meant to both dissect an issue and create informative arguments.
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By focusing on such a polarizing topic, I was able to see how powerful thought leadership can be. While I was conducting initial research, it seemed that there were two basic schools of material. On one side, there was factual science. On the other side, there was highly impassioned rhetoric. This rhetoric most often took the stance that genetically modified organisms are bad. Bad for the environment, bad for human health, and bad for economic wellbeing. In response to this side of thought leadership, we’ve seen the rise of a strong anti-GMO movement founded on a basic consensus that genetically modified organisms hold no benefit to humans.
What I found is that this strongly dominant school of thought is far from the entire truth. There are entire groups of people around the world whose existence would be borderline impossible without them. But because of loud and influential thought leaders, this is not the narrative that we hear most often.
Through this class, I gained perspective of the responsibility of leaders to provide society with whole and honest information, to not tinge their decisions with their personal biases, and to be open to changing their thought processes when new situations and information presents itself.