During International Leadership Week, the Institute of Leadership and Management hosted 40 speakers from 40 countries over 4 days. As one of only three featured speakers from the United States for this event, Megan Seibel (ALCE) was asked to respond to a quote from the late leadership expert, Peter Drucker, which states: “Progress is obtained only be exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. When you solve problems, all you do is guarantee a return to normalcy.” Dr. Seibel argued that in our current world the idea of “normal” is all about perception, and we need to focus on understanding cognitive diversity as a way to find opportunity in every problem in order to maximize the potential for creativity as we manage change. Using Adaption-Innovation theory and the KAI is one approach to doing this. Virginia Tech now serves as an international center of excellence for this work and the only source of certification for practitioners around the globe.

You can watch other presentations from International Leadership week here.

Megan is a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education serving as Director of the VALOR Program and Associate Director of the Center for Cooperative Problem Solving.