Course Syllabus
Draft: Shifting Gears: Leadership Principles in Road Cycling
| Semester & Location: |
Spring 2025 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Major Disciplines: |
Leadership Studies Organizational behavior Management |
| Related Disciplines: |
Strategy Riding a racing and a gravel bike |
| Prerequisite(s): |
None |
| Faculty Members: |
Henriette Rald (current students please use the Canvas Inbox) |
| Time & Place: |
Thursdays 14:40 – 17:45 Classroom TBA + Saturday, January 18 and Sunday, April 6 Optional: social roadrace in Næstved Sunday April 27 |
Course note:
To participate in this course, you must be comfortable riding an ordinary bike, willing to bike in all weather conditions, and learn the rules of the road.
Course Description
“Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you need to keep moving”, Albert Einstein
The sport of cycling provides many valuable lessons in leadership, strategy, and teamwork. As part of a cycling team, you learn to set directions and keep your team on track, to communicate clearly, to manage the individual and collective energy of the team, to mentor teammates through positive reinforcement and rejecting negativity, to prioritize when unforeseen challenges occur, and to have fun in doing so.
Shifting Gears is built around establishing a cycling team, enabling students to practice leadership and teamwork skills and reflecting on these experiences together in an academic context. A cycling team also connects people in a very concrete way, creating a unique sense of belonging. In doing so, it is a positive and very constructive experience for students studying abroad. Throughout the process, students will read and discuss selected articles on strategy, leadership, and organizational behavior, linking theory and concepts to the cycling team.
Within an organizational context, the team will formulate strategy, set goals together, train, take turns as captain of the team, and delve into a deep understanding team dynamics. The course also contains everything that is important around the bike. How to prepare for a bike ride? How to maintain the bike? What to do if you get a puncture? Shifting Gears is truly an action-learning experience!
Topics covered:
- Developing and executing a strategy
- Creating a cohesive team based on an understanding of team dynamics and organizational behavior principles
- Taking on the role of leadership
- Completing and interpreting your personal DiSC-profile
Learning Objectives
- Understand and analyze the theory and methodology behind developing and executing a strategy. A Simple Strategy Model, pictured below, will provide a framework for the course, applying theories to develop the cycling team’s strategy and gain practical experience.
- Familiarize students with the logic model and its application in understanding results. Use this knowledge to set effective goals for the team.
- Understand and differentiate between strategy, tactics, and execution. Apply these terms directly to the various aspects of creating and managing a biking team.
- Explore how organizational behavior theories can be used to understand team dynamics by using the theories to examine the cycling team dynamics.
- Examine and extract the essence of selected strategic leaders by integrating their theories into the cycling experience.
- Understand and evaluate different DiSC styles and their contributions to team dynamics. Apply this understanding to improve the cohesion and performance of the cycling team.
Faculty
Henriette Rald
Master of Political Science, University of Copenhagen. Henriette has 20+ years of experience working in different leadership positions. She has been running an independent consultancy since 2018. Her core business is management development, top management consulting and strategic communication. Since 2022, Henriette has worked for DIS in the capacity of facilitating diverse leadership courses and retreats for various leadership groups such as the Executive Team, Directors as well as Supervisors.
In 2018 Henriette established a road bike team for women only: Team Change https://www.facebook.com/TeamChangee . Today the team has 150 active members, twenty educated captains and facilitates training, races, tours and events all year round
Readings
- Richard Rumelt, Good strategy/Bad strategy
- Henry Mintzberg et al., Strategy Safari
- Stephen Bungay, article based on “The art of Action” (2010).
- Roger L Martin, selected chapters from “A new way to Think.” (2022)
- Patrick Lencioni, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” (2002)
- Jim Macnamara, working with evaluation.
- A biography of a professional road biker or leader (tbd)
Field Studies
We have two field studies connected with this course. If possible the class will also attend one or two road races in Denmark during the spring. At the start of the semester, we will also plan on two half-days where we will go on a longer biketrip in Hareskoven combined with class.
Guest Lecturers
A second lecturer will participate in all bike trips in order for the group to be able to ride in smaller groups of 10 people. Each bike trip will have a learning and training element.
A bike riding CEO and/or a professional bikerider will visit during one of the in class sessions.
Approach to Teaching
I like to work with simple models and structure. Strategy has a tendency to become very complicated and leadership overwhelming. Together we break it down into small bites and small steps ensuring a smooth move forward.
I believe that one of the best ways of learning is by teaching. Therefore the students of this class will prepare and present for each other during the whole semester. It may be a recap of readings, sharing of learnings and taking turns being the captain of the team.
DIS Accommodations Statement
Your learning experience in this class is important to me. If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support acadsupp@dis.dk.
Expectations of the Students
The most important thing in this class is that you are prepared to challenge yourself and jump on the bike in all kind of weather. Everything will definitely not go as planned. And I need you to help each other, support each other and have fun together.
Working with strategy and leadership is abstract. Riding the bike is concrete. I expect you to engage in the difficult conversations and be ready to build the bridge between the concrete and the abstract.
Evaluation
There will be two types of sessions. Normal in class sessions and outdoor sessions on the bike. I expect engaged participation in both type of sessions. I will value a lot of ideas and feedback as to how we will succeed in bridging the understanding between theory and practice.
By the end of the course the student should be able to explain the strategy of the team referring to the simple strategy model. And they should be able to conduct an in-depth self-reflection on their own role both as captain and crew.
Grading
| Assignment |
Percent |
| Participation in class discussions |
15% |
|
Participation in bike-training |
15% |
|
Personal blog |
20% |
|
Midterm presentation analyzing and evaluating the strategic progress of the team |
20% |
|
Final Reflection Paper |
30% |
Recommended Additional Areas to Cover
Policy on late papers – This should be at the discretion of the instructor, but it is useful to state this policy (e.g. ‘Late papers will not be accepted’, or ‘Late papers will be accepted, but your grade for the paper will be reduced by half a point for each day that it is late.’)
Use of laptops or phones in class – DIS recommends that you are clear about classroom etiquette and the expectations you have of students using laptops in class. The decision to allow laptop use in class at all is at the discretion of the instructor.
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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