2012 Class Curriculum

Class of 2011/12 Curriculum

August, 2011 through May, 2012.

Our mission: Roaring Fork Leadership Develops Leaders for the Community.

Today's leaders require skills that transform conflict into effective results, personal agendas into collaborative agreements, and business as usual into an inspirational call to action.

The following schedule is subject to changes due to availability of presenters and locations.  

First Session: Retreat: Fri/Sat, August 26/27 2011, Location: Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, 8:00 am -7:30 pm Friday, 9:00-5:30 pm Saturday. "Conscious Leadership," Greg Cortopassi, Launch Your Dreams. In this session we explore what it means to be developing oneself as a leader in the context of this course. We learn about our own personal styles in relation to others, explore our greatest leadership fears and dreams, and design our intentions for our future. This session is the essential first step in building a learning community for both the Friday sessions and the class project. The retreat setting provides the necessary catalyst to begin to recognize and change old patterns, and make way for building new, more effective ways of leading in community. Leave with an assignment to create your goals for personal, professional, and civic leadership in the coming year.

Second Session: Thurs/Fri/Sat, October 6/7/8, 2011, Location: Snowmass Club, Snowmass Village, 8:30 am - 6:00 pm each day: "Mastering Performance" Jonathan Clark , Coriolis Consulting Group, reveals the underlying factors that limit ability, impede communication, hinder teamwork, rob satisfaction and ultimately thwart performance. With this new view, results that we may have previously considered unlikely or even impossible now become realized. Jonathan promises a personal transformation; you will have breakthroughs in Being Powerful, Being Free and having Peace of Mind with everything you are committed to both professionally and personally.

Third Session: Friday, November 4, 2011: Location: Carbondale Town Hall. 8:00am-5:00 pm.  Civic Project Set-Up Day.  This session is dedicated to the development of your civic projects which provide a laboratory for participants to practice new ways of leadership, at the same time making a difference in the community.  Working in your civic project teams, our Executive Director will facilitate this day by hosting community sponsors to briefly present their project ideas and then, using project selection tools provided by RFL, each project team will go through a process of determining what project best suits the team.  This is the beginning of the selection process.  Each team will have until the December 2^nd, to select and write their ‘problem statement’ for their project.

Fourth Session: Friday, December 2, 2011: Location: Colorado Mountain College, Aspen Campus. 8:00 am - 5:00 pm: "Leading Change," "Ron Gager, Gager and Associates. Change in organizations doesn't happen just because the leader wishes it to be so. Change has to be communicated, refined, implemented and assessed, with committed leadership to ensure its success. Learn practical skills to apply to the class project process as well as to organizational and community issues.

Fifth Session: Friday, January 6, 2012: Location: 3rd Street Center, Carbondale. 8:00 am - 5:00 pm: Topic:  “Crucial Conversations,” Stacy Nelson, VitalSmarts. Problem-plagued organizations often share the same root cause: perplexed employees who aren’t quite sure how to bring up touchy, controversial, and complex issues and resolve them. And when three key forces show up—strong emotions, differing opinions, or high stakes—key business results suffer.  Learn to share information safely, get ideas and feelings out in the open, and maintain high levels of respect—all without causing resistance or resentment. Discover a model that truly helps individuals, teams and organizations get unstuck and achieve breakthrough results.

Sixth Session: Friday, February 3, 2012: Location: Glenwood Springs Community Center. 8:00am - 5:00 pm: Topic: "Critical Thinking for Success," Scott Halford, Author & Emmy Award Winning Writer and Producer. Breakthrough thinking and the understanding of how to prep the brain to build powerful insights are the focus of this session. You'll learn proven methods for innovative and critical thinking that the World Council for CFOs featured as a 'best practice' for organizations everywhere Friday.

 Seventh Session: Friday, March 2, 2012: Location: Snowmass Village Conference Center, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm: "Community Decision Making," Chris Gates, Executive Director, PACE (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement). Chris Gates provides a non-stop day of historical perspective and practical insight into re-engaging citizens in our democracy. The rational choice of everyday citizens to disengage from democracy, fanned by a culture of disbelief promoted by media, is a recipe for our current challenges around community engagement.

Eighth Session: Friday, April 6, 2012: Location: Colorado Mountain College, Aspen Campus, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm: Participants work together in their civic project teams attending these 2 different segments: 1) “Communicating as an Effective Leader,” Tricia Majors, Majors Communications.  What is it that some people have, or do, that makes them appear in control, competent and polished?  Other people listen to what they have to say and want to follow them.  They leave you thinking, “How do I get some of that?”  Because communications isn’t optional, in this session, you will gain insights on how you communicate, and learn ways to increase your leadership effectiveness through communication. 2)  “Feedback: A key element to being a leader” Without feedback, how can we as leaders be sure that we are hitting or missing the mark?  Few leaders say that they get too much feedback from bosses and stakeholders. Most assume that “no news is good news”. In fact, a leader may consistently “hit” the target and receive recognition for the results, while at the same time, stakeholders, especially peers and team members, are frustrated and even marginalized by HOW the leader is achieving the results.   Being able to give ‘feedback’, is just as important as being able to receive it.  Have you ever compromised your effectiveness to avoid bringing something up?  This segment is designed to demonstrate the critical role that ‘feedback’ plays in leadership.  

 Ninth session: Friday, May 4, 2012:  Location: Flying Dog Ranch, Carbondale 8:00- 6:00 pm. "Conscious Transitions and Closing Session." Greg Cortopassi, Launch Your Dreams. Greg Cortopassi returns to help celebrate the year of learning and to share your accomplishments and align your intentions as community leaders. Project Presentations will also be part of this day.

Graduation Ceremony:  on the evening of May ?, we will be hosting your graduation ceremony, and inviting your family, friends and previous graduates to share in your celebration.

Class Projects: At the retreat, the class will be divided into 5 civic project teams. Each team is responsible for developing and executing a civic (community) project during the program year. One hour will be allotted for project development during each session starting in November. Teams will also meet in-between classes as they deem necessary.