Leadership – Peace & Power

Peace and Power as a Relational Leadership Handbook

Writtten by Adeline Falk-Rafael, PhD, FAAN, Professor, York University

For the past 4 years, I have taught a 4^th year leadership course to Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs), who are in our RN-BScN program at York University in Toronto, Canada. The course is designed to support students to meet professional standards of leadership in whatever position they practice and to provide them with beginning knowledge and skills required for nursing leadership, particularly at the bedside, but applicable in positions of

leadership as well. The course reading materials include 2 “textbooks” – one that focuses on leadership (not management) and Peace and Power. My use of Peace and Power began simply as a process to use in the classroom, as I had in other courses for years. In reading it simultaneously with leadership literature, however, I began to see the strong relationship of its tenets with relational leadership approaches and the usefulness of its processes in helping students develop various leadership/followership skills.

Contemporary leadership theories, which stress the relationship of leaders with their followers, have their roots in the paradigmatic shift towards transformational leadership initiated by Burns in 1976. In this transformational context, Continue reading “Peace and Power as a Relational Leadership Handbook”

Small steps with big results!

Recently I had a discussion with a nursing class at York University in Toronto, Canada! No, I did not travel to Toronto – I participated over a Skype connection! The professor, Adeline Falk-Rafael, has used Peace and Power processes in her classes for many years. This class was a leadership class, and the students have been using Peace and Power as a basis for exploring ways to create effective group interactions in the workplace. One of the issues we discussed related to making positive changes in a situation that might benefit from using Peace and Power.

In my experience, it is not possible to use Peace and Power to the fullest extent in most group situations. But it is often possible to bring some components of the process to the group with great success – meaning significant changes in creating cooperative and satisfying interactions. One process that many groups welcome Continue reading “Small steps with big results!”

Questions from around the world

Recently I visited a nursing leadership class at York University in Toronto by way of Skype! The Professor is Dr. Adeline Falk-Rafael, and the class participants are enrolled in a program for nurses around the world who are seeking licensure to practice nursing in Canada. They had recently read “Peace and Power” (8th Ed.) and had a number of questions about the book. Several questions related to putting the ideas into practice in their leadership roles.

There are no easy answers to these questions, and no magic wands to assure success with any attempts to put Peace and Power ideals into practice. But here are a few ideas to consider when you want to do so:

It is possible to use just one or two components of Peace and Power in a group and make significant changes in how a group functions. If you introduce the reason, or your intention in suggesting that the group use any part of Peace and Power, the group members may be more open and receptive to the idea. For example, Continue reading “Questions from around the world”