This week’s reading really expanded my ways of thinking and understanding of individuals and our society as a whole. I enjoy reading about ways of challenging thought and expanding my understanding of conceptual topics, but these readings were a little arduous for me! Even in the challenge, I took a lot from these readings and thoroughly enjoyed them.
Considering how creative leadership is applied to individuals and our society as a whole, takes a deep, collective understanding of what we define a leader to be and in which ways that can be expanded. To understand any individual’s understanding of this definition, we can use critical theory to expand our own definitions to include different perspectives or use this as an understanding of where the standard of the masses lies. Creative leadership and critical theory can be deeply intertwined here.
In the article Critical Theory (Frankfurt School) from Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy it states, “Critical theory aims not merely to describe social reality, but to generate insights into the forces of domination operating within society in a way that can inform practical action and stimulate change.” As our society has evolved and created different types of functioning, our definition of a leader has grown with it. Understanding this is key to understanding how to expand it for growth towards different ways of leading and to create more opportunity for everyone to perceive leadership qualities in themselves.
Using critical theory to expand how the masses of our society functions, evolves, and expands our way of understanding the realities in which we live and packaging these concepts to deliver change for good has been interesting concepts to explore this week. It shows me a bright light for the evolution of our world to consider these concepts and have been deeply thought through, but sometimes I’m daunted by the idea that majority of people on this earth don’t have the privilege of knowing or contemplating whether that be from not having the resources, the time, safety, education or other circumstances. I’m hopeful that these ideas can inspire creative leaders to explore how they can advocate for the whole of our world.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9828806/#:~:text=Critical%20theory&text=These%20theories%20ask%20us%20to,1986%3B%20Sherman%2C%202003