“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where
there is no path and leave a trail.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
This course doesn’t claim to be the complete source for all things you need to do. I would have needed much much more of your time to support any claim coming close to that. I know you know that. What the course does claim to be is a useful introduction to a core set of moves that set you up to navigate the world more powerfully and effectively. I hope the CCO has also intrigued you regarding the amazing lifelong journey of learning and developing yourself, your capacity to lead, and your own personal leadership style.
Below, you will find some ideas to carry your learning forward.
- Rest and integrate. An important part of any process of knowledge-acquisition is cognitive integration. You have already been hard at work on cognitive integration through your individual lab work as well as the bi-weekly discovery process you have engaged in with your quad. Additional knowledge-acquisition occurs through practice, to be sure, and also through rest. Take a break, rest up, and integrate!
- Review. You will have access to the online course materials for a full month after the program closes. Use this time to revisit the concepts, dip into the experiments you might have missed, and take note of any practices you found particularly useful to your own development.
- Practice! Each week of the CCO, you received a handful of practices to experiment with as a way of helping you implement the CCO learnings. Just because the course is coming to an end does not mean your time to practice with these techniques has to. Pick a handful of the practices that intrigued you and calendar time for yourself to keep up the great work.
- Handouts, optional further reading, and reference materials. You probably noticed that each week came with a collection of handouts, suggested further reading, and referenced source materials, where applicable. To further your study, you may wish to spend more time with your handouts and/or look into some of the additional sources of insight provided for you. In the CCO’s final Resource List, you will find links to printable versions of all of these.
- Peer learning. Continue working with your quad. Know that the CCO’s ending need not signal an end of your time with your quad. Consider using some of your time in these final weeks to discuss the possibility of moving forward with additional meetings, as well as designing a new cadence or rhythm for those meetings that feels most useful. (For example you might find that meeting monthly makes more sense after the close of the CCO. As an aside, I’ll say from personal experience that it might be wise to expect that when the time for your second post-CCO meeting comes around, you are likely to consider cancelling it; don’t do it! Just make the time for it. I am guessing you will be so glad you did.)
- Re-read and reflect on your journal. Take some time to read over your journal as a log of where you’ve been on this journey. You can also use your journal review to gain insights into where you want to go next.
- Advanced levels of training. If you love the self-directed study model, look for advanced levels of training, either the next level CCO or other courses from The Essential Group or training offerings by other providers.
- Work with a coach. If you are sufficiently intrigued by the possibilities in developing yourself and your leadership capabilities, you may wish to engage a qualified coach as a guide on your journey. There are plenty out there from which to choose. I suggest you interview at least three prior to deciding who you will work with.
“People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never ‘arrive’. Sometimes, language, such as the term ‘personal mastery’ creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see the ‘journey is the reward’.”
— Peter Senge