21st Century Governance:Critical Skills for Leading & Sustaining Innovative Organizations

A Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education program - focusing on negotiation and innovations in governance - exclusively for senior executives in the Croatian public sector

Thursday – Sunday, 22-25 January 2009

OVERVIEW
21st Century Governance: Critical Skills for Leading & Sustaining Innovative Organizations is designed for senior professionals in the Croatian public sector, and is made possible by the support of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Luksic Fellowships. The program, normally offered only on the Harvard campus and open to nationals from all countries, will be held in Zagreb only once -in January 2009- and will be exclusively for Croatian participants. Moreover, the tuition costs will be covered for all participants by the Luksic Fellowship.

Therefore this is truly a unique opportunity to learn from and engage in discussions with scholar-practitioners from Harvard Kennedy School on issues of critical importance to public sector leaders.

21st Century Governance is designed to offer participants tools which are critical for advancing important individual and organizational goals and which are vital for generating, managing, and leveraging change in an era of growing global complexity. Taught by faculty who are international experts in their fields, 21st Century Governance will provide instruction in the fields of:

Negotiation and conflict management
Innovations in governance

All participants who complete 21st Century Governance will receive a certificate of completion from Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education.

CURRICULUM
The curriculum of 21st Century Governance will be organized around two main fields:

Negotiation and conflict management: this component develops a toolkit of strategic and analytical skills and conceptual frameworks which enable participants to accurately diagnose, shape, and direct negotiations within and across organizations and sectors; design consensus-building procedures and build winning coalitions; examine cross-cultural differences and ethical dilemmas; sustain cooperative relationships; and manage complex, competitive environments.

Innovation: this part of the program will address the growing inability of governments and organizations to deal with public problems through old methods and traditional practices. It aims to assist participants in devising novel institutional arrangements to meet contemporary challenges, and teaches new managerial practices that enable participants to implement and sustain such new arrangements. It also offers insights on how to build comprehensive plans for executing change and seeks to provide participants with knowledge and strategies on how to influence an organization’s culture and alter the ways organizations and institutions respond to the challenge of innovation.

Session titles forthcoming

FACULTY

Negotiation and conflict management modules will be taught by
Dr. Brain Mandell

Mandell is Lecturer in Public Policy and Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Negotiation Project. He is also Chair of the Wexner-Israel and Kokkalis Fellowship programs at the School. His current teaching and research address the theory and practice of negotiation, emphasizing third-party facilitation and consensus building in domestic and international protracted policy disputes. He writes about contentious disputes and is completing a book on scenario planning for conflict managers and negotiation practitioners. Before coming to Harvard, Mandell taught at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. Previously, he was a strategic analyst for the Canadian Department of National Defense, specializing in UN peacekeeping and the implementation of arms control agreements. A Pew Faculty Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Mandell holds a PhD from the University of Toronto.

Innovation and governance will be taught by Dr. Elaine Kamarck

Kamarck is a Lecturer in Public Policy who came to Harvard Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton Administration's National Performance Review, also known as reinventing government. At the Kennedy School she served as Director of Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century and as Faculty Advisor to the Innovations in American Government Awards Program. In 2000, she took a leave of absence to work as Senior Policy Advisor to the Gore campaign. She conducts research on 21st century government, the role of the Internet in political campaigns, homeland defense, intelligence reorganization, and governmental reform and innovation. Kamarck received her PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Kamarck is the author of "The End of Government As We Know It: Policy Implementation in the 21st Century" published by Lynne Rienner Publishing, Fall, 2006.

ADMISSION and TUITION

21st Century Governance is open to individuals working in the Croatian public sector (e.g., from ministries of foreign affairs, defense, economy, telecommunications, and the like; elected officials; policymakers; political party officials) and their nonprofit counterparts from Croatia who have significant input and play a key role in the strategy and functioning of their organizations. Applicants should have a minimum of 10 years of professional experience and a demonstrated commitment to public service. The admissions process will be highly selective.

Participants must be able and willing to distance themselves from their professional responsibilities for the duration of the four-day intensive instruction. Fluency in writing, reading, and speaking English is essential. Because participants’ expertise and experiences are critical to the learning process, the program’s members will be selected to reflect a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds and interests.

There is no tuition for 21st Century Governance. Selected applicants will be provided with curricular materials as well as lunch and coffee breaks. Participants must provide for their own accommodation and travels.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTION
Please click here to read the Executive Education application instructions BEFORE you begin your application.

Please apply online .

Your application will not be considered complete, or reviewed, until you have provided all the information requested on the online application including the essay questions.

All applicants to 21st Century Governance are required to provide a resume or CV as part of the application process. After submitting the online application, please email a copy of your resume or CV to ksg_execed@ksg.harvard.edu.

All communication you receive from the Executive Education department will be via email. Please add KSG_ExecEd@ksg.harvard.edu to your email address book so that your computer recognizes this email traffic and does not direct it to your SPAM file.

MORE INFORMATION
If you have any questions in regard to 21st Century Governance, please e-mail:

Mikhala Stein, Harvard Kennedy School’s Kokkalis Program associate director, at mstein@ksg.harvard.edu.