Course Description
A practical, step-by-step guide to lasting social change using the Seven Pillars framework, as taught by Rev. Dr. Lauren Speeth and used by social entrepreneurs worldwide. Enhance your effective, transformational leadership with this robust, intuitive, and proven methodology.
The methodology is simple yet profound, encouraging you to implement your vision regardless of naysayers. Students will examine case studies, analyze real-world challenges, and develop their own analyses using the Seven Pillars methodology. Students gain a framework for success they can apply at work, in life, or in academic research.
Course Outline
Introduction to the Seven Pillars
Pillar 1: Vision
Pillar 2: Special Skills
Pillar 3: Nonduplication
Pillar 4: Partnership
Pillar 5: Credit Sharing
Pillar 6: Feedback
Pillar 7: Staying Power
The Seven Pillars and the Beatitudes
The Seven Pillars in Decision Making
Final Lesson and Summary
Course Outcome
Use your special skills in a non-duplicative way.
Work in partnership with others.
Share credit for results.
Use a valid feedback loop to measure those results.
Allow for bumps in the path as you work over time toward great successes.
Cost | $150 |
Prerequisite Requirements | None |
Time | 35 hours |
Instruction Method | Videos, Reading, Journaling, and Experience practicing the Seven Pillars. |
Level of Instructor Involvement | Self-guided, Self-Paced |
Credit | No academic credit |
Facilitator
Lauren Speeth, PhD
Dr. Lauren Speeth’s passion for education is in her DNA: her father invented educational toys and took her to India where her parents helped establish a school for Dalits. She has taught at multiple Bay Area college campuses as well as domestically and abroad, and holds a Lifetime California Community College Teaching Credential. Dr. Speeth is President of Elfenworks Productions and Founding CEO of The Elfenworks Foundation. She has experience at the startup and Fortune 500 levels, managing critical technology projects. She is a Life Member of the Carter Center Board of Councilors, a Regent Emeritus at SMC, and an External Advisor for Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, where she was a web architect and co-orchestrated their launch.
Speeth’s heart for ministry may have been sparked in India, but didn’t really take off until she began studying at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and then at BGU for a DMin. She would later return for a PhD. She directs NHM Ministrants, a growing online ministry with multilingual Lord’s Prayer and Bible basics resources. Speeth designed the S.H.I.P. after learning spiritual assessment tools during an interfaith chaplaincy at Stanford University Hospital and Clinics. Her Stanford education also includes an Advanced Computer Security Professional credential and completion of an Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders Dr. Ray Bakke, from whom BGU gets its name, chaired both Speeth’s BGU DMin dissertation committee and her later ordination committee, and she is delighted to be sharing this wisdom with the BGU-adjacent community.
A trained Climate Reality Leader, she holds a BA from the former Mills College (now a part of Northeastern), a BSc(Hons) from Middlesex University, an MBA from St. Mary’s College, a DBA from Golden Gate University, and DMin and PhD degrees from BGU, and chaplaincy training.