How do you prototype a leader?
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ACTIONLAB
“As a leader, I pledge to ______.”
That’s how we closed our Design Thinking workshop with international students from Kenya, India, Indonesia, and beyond, at Columbia University’s ISSO GLASS program.
After a full day of building empathy, sharing stories of great (and not-so-great) leadership, mapping unmet challenges, and prototyping what Next Generation Leadership could look like, we asked each student to make it personal.
Not theoretical.
Not performative.
Personal.
Using a human-centered design process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, they sketched profiles of future leaders grounded in curiosity, inclusion, cultural intelligence, systems thinking, and courage.
Some of the pledges that emerged:
• “As a leader, I pledge to stay curious, even when I think I know the answer.”
• “As a leader, I pledge to listen before I lead.”
• “As a leader, I pledge to create spaces where every voice feels safe to speak.”
• “As a leader, I pledge to challenge systems that exclude.”
• “As a leader, I pledge to lead with empathy across cultures.”
Because leadership isn’t a title.
It’s a practice.
And it starts with a commitment.
So we’ll ask you the same question:
👉 As a leader, I pledge to ______.
PS. If this leadership workshop seems like something your team could use, let’s talk!
Results
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100% participant engagement through hands-on activities
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Leadership pledges created by all participants
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Cross-disciplinary collaboration across global student cohorts
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Rapid ideation and prototyping completed within one-day session
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Actionable leadership frameworks participants can apply beyond the workshop
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