Post by Thompson Harrison

Take 63 chief executives from nearly 30 countries in 32 degree heat in Oxford for 6 days Reimagining Leadership - and what do you get?   Well, we got an extraordinary week of provocation, immersion, reflection and insight. The governing question for this year’s gathering was “What Will We Leave Behind?”. Given the times, the importance of the question invited scrutiny from a variety of different angles and perspectives.    Chris Kutarna used maps (mental and metaphorical) to explore "The Moment We’re In”, Daren Jacobs took Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus' as a case study of leadership and legacy gone wrong, Alex Steele and his Jazz band explored what happens when we really listen to each other. We sent leaders off to explore what Oxford has left behind. Some found themselves in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History History Museum where the great Darwin evolution debates happened - mulling how and what we debate today. Some found themselves with teaching curator Jim Harris in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford up close with drawings of Michelangelo, Rafael and Leonardo exploring how we pay attention. We followed with a formal debate in Convocation House about whether or not it was wise to automate our businesses.    The best bits of these weeks are the spaces in between where the peer learning happens. Oxford is a wonderful place to walk and talk. We used Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations for reflections each day. Poet David Whyte brought the question back to the personal, following Cameron Hepburn’s exploration of the existential risks facing our generation. David began with the opening of Dante’s Inferno: “Midway upon the journey of our life/ I found myself in a dark forest..” using poetry to find the point of connection with each person in the room (as it did).   At TH, we continue to draw from the humanities. We are at a moment in history where we underestimate the value of being human at our peril. Our brains only use 20 watts, they are primed for learning - they don't need to learn how - as AI’s do. Human beings need to laugh, imagine, love, invent, smell, touch, taste, meet, tell stories, be intentional, struggle, work, learn with each other, share experiences, we need to be ourselves. AI - wondrous as it may be - can't do that for us. It can’t lead well.   Photographer Rory Carnegie took photos of each leader ‘in the wild’ during the week, capturing the impressions they left behind. We exhibited these, along with work of the hand created with artists Leo Crane and Miranda Creswell and used this exhibition as a scaffold for giving each other precise, appreciative feedback about contributions to a week of interaction & exploring. Individuals took the revivified question of the week back into their businesses and lives with new commitment and with the collective energy of the group behind them. #LeadershipDevelopment Samantha Rockey Tracey Camilleri Gavin Weeks Saïd Business School, University of Oxford Tom Chatfield Lord Karan Bilimoria