Topic outline

  • Junction Leadership Experience

    The course is aimed to all Junction Hackathon team leads, group leads and those volunteers having significant responsibilities in Junction to support their preparation for the event and to enable more profound learning from a unique experience. The Aalto Venture Programs (AVP) arranges the course in cooperation with the Master Programme of Industrial Engineering and Management and the Junction team. The course is integrated and embedded into the preparation process of the Junction event. The workshops and course events are planned to support both collective and individual preparation. 

    The course will familiarize the participants with the essentials of the team dynamics and leadership especially in temporary team context, and deepen their learning from their own experiences as leaders and collaborative partners. The course follows constructive learning philosophy in which it is essential to learn to discuss and listen to others, reflect on own experiences, and to construct further one's own thinking. Both theoretical and practical aspects of team leadership, participants' personal experiences, and collective reflection on the experiences will be reviewed. The process enables students to construct and strengthen their personal agency, leadership philosophy and practice.

    The course consists of workshops, appropriate readings on team building and leadership, and personal and group assignments. The workshops serve as learning and sharing forums in which practical experiences and relevant conceptual aspects of team building  and leadership will be discussed. The workshops enable participants to plan their personal and team specific preparation process further.  Beside the workshops articles and other readings will enhance the understanding of team building, collaboration and leadership, and own experiences.

    The participants can choose either they want to take a one, three or five credit version of the course. The one credit will require registration, participation to the workshops, collecting feedback, and a descriptive and reflective summary of the leadership and team building experiences during the Junction event. Three credits will require besides the workshops writing of three personal essays, review of three articles, and peer-group exercise. The five credit -version will require the workshops, three personal essays, six article reviews, peer-group exercise, and a group assignment. Furthermore, there will be one additional workshop for five-credit students attached to a concluding group assignment on strategic leadership on Junction. The grading is pass/fail in all course versions. The requirements are presented in detail in Course Requirements section.