Beaconhouse National University (BNU)

The School of Education at BNU organized a compelling guest lecture, under the leadership of Ms. Iram Farooq, an esteemed alumna and a dedicated visiting faculty member at the Education Leadership and Management (ELM) department on "Systems Leadership and Organizational Development," as an extension of her course, "Leadership Practices for Social Impact" where students had the privilege of engaging with guest speaker, Dr. Qudsia Kalsoom, lecturer at the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, University of Dundee, UK. Dr. Qudsia Kalsoom’s talk on “Systems Leadership and Organizational Development” focused on the complexity of systems and the need for systems leadership. Using the framework of sustainable development goals (SDGs), Dr. Kalsoom highlighted the interconnectedness and interdependence of various elements in an open system. She discussed how inputs in an open system do not lead to equivalent outputs. Dr Kalsoom further discussed the elements of systems leadership and the relationship between complexity theory and systems leadership. She concluded her talk by stressing that today’s world’s problems are complex and cannot be addressed with ready-made solutions. Rather, they require an insight into the complexity of the whole system, collaboration among stakeholders and skillful, action-oriented leadership. The session concluded with an interactive question and answer segment, fostering active student participation and knowledge exchange.