Join the GRLI Deans & Directors Cohort

As a dean or senior leader of a forward thinking and outward facing learning institution, you work with increasingly competing internal and external priorities. Not least the paradoxes and possibilities associated with developing a global perspective and implementing responsibility in leadership and practice.

Alongside this you must manage the ever demanding cycle of transformational change required by learning and education fit for the 21st century.

The Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative, an EFMD, AACSB International and UN Global Compact strategic partnership, is committed to facilitating innovative, pioneering and action oriented co-learning opportunities for senior leaders in the fields of management, higher education and organisational learning.

History and development of the Cohort 

The idea for a “Deans roundtable” was suggested by Julia Christensen Hughes during the GRLI’s 2016 AGM held at Kemmy Business School in Limerick, Ireland and built on the Innovation Cohort hosted by GRLI in 2014/15.

The stated purpose of the Roundtable was to help academic leaders develop an emergent understanding of globally responsible management education, as well as share tested strategies for facilitating transformation towards the achievement of that end. Forming in 2017, and now known as the GRLI Deans & Directors Cohort, the group grew to include a global community of 100+ deans, directors, and learning partners acting as catalysts of change. As a growing participant-driven co-learning initiative, participants collaborate with new open research, start new centres and programmes, and explore initiatives aimed at transforming management education.

The Cohort’s ongoing collaboration has been energized through in-person meetings in Canada, France, the United States and in November 2019 at its fourth in-person meeting in Portugal.

Over the past three years, the GRLI Deans and Directors Cohort has continued to develop and demonstrate the value of this ongoing community of responsible action. While the pandemic has kept us from meeting in person, we have had the opportunity to experiment and explore how to create meaningful virtual gatherings that not only advance global responsibility priorities, but also connect us as whole persons managing multiple personal and professional roles.

As an example, the November 2021 collaborative meeting convened more than 60 Deans, Directors and learning partners, including several new participants.  The online meetings such as the Antwerp Management School hosted event (Nov 2020) are not webinars for passive consumption but participant-driven co-learning opportunities that complement the Deans Cohort in-person gatherings. In 2021 we gathered for a minimum of three inquiry-led virtual events, as well as smaller working meetings and side events. (See recordings in the sidebar). For example, participants of the D&DC (Mark Smith, Dima Rachid Jamali, Dayle Smith and Hanna-Leena Pesonen) facilitated the 22 February RME Affinity Group at the AACSB Deans Meeting as a side event.

Value of contributing to the co-learning

We see the value of continuing in-person Deans Cohorts gatherings that are in line with the original vision of the Cohort as a “Deans as Agents of Change” roundtable. The first post-pandemic meeting was held 7-10 September 2022 at Antwerp Management School, Belgium.

Going forward we will invite Deans, or a delegated Associate Dean, and learning partners to apply for and to engage in 2.5 days of facilitated in-person learning. 

Active engagement and commitment will enable you to:

• collaborate with other committed change agents in a facilitated global process of co-learning and co-creation,
• develop a deeper understanding of the vision of management education for the world,
• define and initiate a transformative change outcome or program for your organization,
• identify and share tools and methodologies to facilitate further exploration and implementation of global responsibility within your own organization,
• share the cohort’s collective learning across leading networks and on global platforms as a bold call to action for educators and the industry worldwide,
• be recognized as leaders taking charge of and acting on issues of key importance for the future of management education,
• and impact the development of higher / management education globally.

We are keen to observe how ideas and inquiries that emerge from the Cohort grow into initiatives, yield impact beyond the cohort and help develop new insights into the development of global responsibility.

• To register your interest in the upcoming in-person gatherings please apply online. Event registration follows later and will be sent to qualified applicants only.