Joe Lasley, PhD

“Dr. Joe” Lasley, Ph.D., teaches leadership development, group dynamics, organizational learning, and systems thinking. His work approaches leadership as a relational and emergent practice people develop together through experience, reflection, experimentation, and engagement with the complexity of organizational and social systems. Accordingly, his developmental teaching creates opportunities for students to embody the study of leadership as a practice through action learning, leadership coaching, collaborative projects, community engagement, and game-based experiences. This approach is informed by professional training in leadership coaching (ICF certified), Group Relations International, and the Adaptive Leadership Network. His research explores the intersections of leadership, andragogy, and games, with particular attention to how play, role-playing games, group dynamics, and collective creativity create spaces for learning, development, and new ways of knowing. Across his teaching, scholarship, and professional practice, he examines how people make meaning together and develop the capacity to navigate complexity, engage difference, work creatively with others, and contribute more reflectively and effectively to their organizations and communities.