Leading with Insight instructors Darla Vidger and Bill Wells.
Updated July 11, 2024
The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice is excited to introduce the instructors, Darla Vidger and Bill Wells, of a new learning opportunity.
Leading with Insight is for public health professionals to reflect on the past few years and plan for the workforce of the future by building more diverse, inclusive, and resilient teams. The 9-session series is designed with busy public health professionals in mind and is meant to be a bite-sized, highly interactive learning opportunity.
Darla has a passion for helping people grow that can be traced back to her work leading employee and organizational development for one of the largest local pension funds in the United States. Now, she specializes in applying the latest research and understanding of how the brain works to improve leadership, knowledge management, mentoring, and preparing the next generation of leaders for the work ahead.
Bill has more than 20 years of leadership and management experience in the public and non-profit sectors. His leadership development philosophy draws heavily on recent research around brain science and the importance of psychological safety and emotional intelligence for building effective teams and organizations.
Darla and Bill share more about how their unique perspectives and experience can support scholars and why we need insights to lead the way forward.
Darla, how has perception about or need for leadership changed in recent years?
“As leaders, we have always needed to be nimble, adjust our thinking, innovate, adapt, and move forward, even as the ground seems to shift beneath our feet. But today’s leaders no longer need a ‘know it all’ mindset. Rather, they need a ‘learn it all’ one to build learning organizations that are more adaptable and resilient to constant and rapid change. We need leaders who can develop insight into the way we shape a new and brighter future together.”
Bill, based on your experience, why is insight the key to leading?
“Insights are foundational to adaptation and innovation. They help us all see where we need to go next as the speed and volatility of change in our world increases by the day. We are in a new era where we are overwhelmed with information, knowledge and opinion, but we need to be able to know how to sift through all of those variables to know what actually applies, to know what’s important. Otherwise, all we have is the illusion of knowledge without a shared understanding of what they mean and how to use them.”
Learn more about the Leading with Insight series.
Questions? Contact Christine Ector.
