Leadership Learning Community
Funders Circle and Evaluation Circle Meeting
January 17th, 9:00 AM – January 18th Noon
The California Endowment
8:45 AM – 9:00 AM Refreshments
I. Welcome and Circle Participant Introductions (45 minutes)
II. Review the Goals and Design for the Day (15 minutes)
A. Introduction of the LLC Funders and Evaluation Circles
B. Review the Goals for the Day
C. Proposed Design
III. Why Collective Leadership? What is it?
A. Film Clip: “A Conversation on Boundary Crossing Leadership”: The film is based on excerpts of a conversation about the strategic importance of boundary crossing leadership.
Participants in the conversation were:
Highlights:
- This is a learning process
- There are folks already doing this work out there, our job and work is to lift up and support that work
- Also, how then do we bring it back to our internal work in the foundation/
B. Catalytic Resource Panel
- Frank Taylor: W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kellogg Leadership for Community Change
- Long term vision is that foundations will have a collective leadership program that is about collective boundary crossing leadership rather than our own individual leadership programs.
- Laura Efurd: Community Technology Foundation, Zero Divide Fellowship - Focus on serving underserved communities, briding digital divide and illustrating & leveraging the power of technology for social justice. Advocacy and policy are also key elements. Building partnerships with industry so that industry and communities can work together on specific issues.
- Barry Kibel: SEED - New York
- Ken Wilbur - External transformation without internal transformation cannot be sustained. We must be both the artist and the art product of the transformation.
- Prefer the term co-creative leadership?
- What is the shift in perspective? Why is "we" more satisfying than "I"?
- Synergy - 1 + 1 = more than 2
- Trying to make ourselves and others around the world more brilliant
Challenges:
- Integrating technology into the program and having the fellows use it
- Long term sustainability of the groups of leaders as a network - alumni network
- How do you "cut the apron strings?"
- Evaluation - how do you quantify and measure the unintended success of program, for instance that successes that come from relationship building among the fellows.
C. Large Group Questions and Discussion
- What's the evidence when a group transitions from a collection of individuals to a synergistic we?
- Measuring shared meaning
- Measuring the use of the word "we"
- What are the factors that bring about readiness for co-creative leadership?
- Using the language of boundary creates the boundary
- Boundaries are a crucial part of how we learn our own identities and sense of self. It is about continuously expanding the boundaries of the concentric circles of our "belonging" and sense of self and we.
- The inner sometimes needs to be strengthened so that there is a place to reach out from.
- People need to sometimes find their own power and then understand how to use that power together for exponentially greater effect.
- People see their leaderhsip and recoginize different kinds of leadership and then see the results.
- How are we defining boundary? There are boundaries that are constructs and there are boundaries that are real and valid. It's not about dissolving boundaries its about knowing what boundaries are real and then understanding how to cross them and work inspite of them. It's about holding the I and the we at the same time. We don't want to lose our sense of self and the things and experiences that make us unique. There are boundaries we don't want to get rid of.
- Crossing boundary of foundation being seen as other and as holding all the power. Foundation has to be ready and able to give up its own false sense of control and power.
10:30 AM – 10:45 AM Break
IV. Identifying the Attributes of Collective Leadership
The session began with six flipcharts that captured each of the collective leadership categories (along with specific elements) that emerged from the the virtual inquiry. The seven categories were:
- Understandings of Collective Leadership
- Shared vision/purpose/responsibility
- Values, Awareness and Capacities
- Group Process and Decision-Making
- Energy, Emergence and Collective Action
- Networks and Systems
We first identified if there were any categories that we were missing that would help us frame what collective leadership is. Two flipcharts were added:
Understanding Authentic Leadership
- Leadership is distributed and horizontal (flexible power relationships)
- Leadership shifts depending on the situation
- Leadership carries the belief that it can and will change the world
- Leadership embodies equity and equality in how it functions and achieves objectives
- Leadership is self-organizing and generative
- Leadership is interdependent
- Leadership is relational
- Leadership relies on intuition, feeling and reason
- Leadership switches from using "I and Us" language to "We"
- Leadership recognizes/understands various forms of oppression and how it/they inhibit effective leadership
- Leadership is an action/function, not a label or permanent position
- "Leading to Follow and Following to Lead" Making Connections - Louisville
Shared Vision/Purpose/Responsibility
- Develop, hold, refine-dynamic the vision - shared/language
- Everyone welcomes responsibility and accountability
- Synergy and alignment around purpose
- Shared values related to endeavor/process and outcomes [and culture?] in a system not always in a system
- Shared ability to set direction, gain and sustain commitment
- People share a deeper calling
- Shared power among the group of leaders
- People are prepared to face a broad range of challenges
- Shared language
- Endeavor and process defined
Co-Leadership Compact - Values, Awareness and Capacity
- High degree of social intelligence
- Capacity for open dialogue
- Values collective learning
- Trust in process over longterm
- Trust among the leaders
- Whole person is engaged
- Respect and recognition of individuals background, expertise and experience
- Values differences
- Involves individuals from a broad spectrum of disciplines, cultures
- Ability to suspend judgment
- Willingness to be accountable
- Valuing reflective practice
- Open and responsive to "hard" evidence/critical analysis
- Open door/inclusivity and diversity
- Value product/short-term wins, sense of progress (outcome focused)
Group Process and Decision-Making
- Group enters into a shared space of deep reflection and listening
- Meetings flow and are purposeful (even without agendas)
- Members intuitively know when, where, how to apply their skills for the common good
- No one makes it happen - it's like an orchestra/jazz jam
- Group dynamics bring out the best in each member
- The group respects experimentation and learning from failure
- Shared responsibility for process and decision making
- Group makes decisions about moving forward that resonates with all
- Diverse in multiple ways and inclusive
- Needs to be integrated - interdependence
- Assumes - value of collective leadership, but is it intentional and explicit? Whose idea is it?
- What does it take to sustain over time?
- So many things work against it
- Internalized value of it
- Nurtured over time
- Supports and structures are in place
- Who is in the group? Who is not?
- Might be developmental stages of this capacity
- How is the group formed - by whom? for what purpose?
- How to keep people engaged
- Let people go
- Add new people
Engergy, Emergence and Collective Action
- Sustainable, diverse collectives in action transcending issues and time
- Spirit of abundance permeates the enterprise
- Participants reach new places within their own capacity not possible alone
- Generative energy unleashes potential for 'collective action'
- Transformation from I>We
- Momentum experience of strange attractor and emergent order and convergence (not necessarily deliberate)
- Non linear / Learning - feedback loops
- Shared sense of purpose/vision empowers individual action (without having to check in for approved authority)
- Organic - self driven / Beyond trust - knowing
- Confluence of ideas "Aha's!"
- We "released."
May the Network Be With You - Networks and Systems
- Groups highly aware of the systems nature of their work
- Capacity to reach across and span boundaries
- Openness to new input, new partnering and new ventures
- Power of the collective depends on the quality of relationships
- Systems are in place to foster positive human development and social capital
- Boundaries define who we are
- Self-organization is the formation of boundaries
- Creatively work with conflict
- Constantly changing and evolving
- Open and adaptive
- Changes notions of accountability, hierarchy and power
- Shared purpose can be the bond in a network or system
- Can constantly reframe hierarchy in a network
HOW DO WE MAKE THE NET WORK?
Time, Connections and History
- Sustainability about life cycle and context not organizational form
- Shared vision/values a must for sustained connection
- It's about relationships and recognizing interdependence
- Must recognize that organization structure/form of collective may change and may not look the same as other organizations/initiatives - WHAT'S THE WHY?
- Context/Preconditions - catalysts for collective leadership>shared values, vision
- Positive view of conflict
- Positive view of differences
- Doesn't happen with Great Man Theory > two heads better than one
- More of an unfolding than a linear pathway
Power, Oppression, Healing - Pushing through the pain to the collective power!
- Awareness/deep understanding of issues and history
- Systems - Emotions
- Willingness to address issues of power directly within the collective and our context (communities, etc.)
- Recognize there is pain, maybe conflict adverse, but we must work through that together and find/create healing to help us move our collective work forward
- Recognize our (individual) roles in perpetrating power imbalances
- Use power to create opportunities for others to have/exercise their power
- Undoing behaviors/attitudes that have a negative impact on the collective
- Power shifts for most and is relative, for some it is not (more enduring)
Visit the Attributes page to see the attributes synthesized from the Virtual Inquiry process that took place leading up to this meeting.
V. What are we Learning About Developing Collective Leadership
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM Lunch
1:15 PM – 5:00 PM Break Out Sessions (See agenda by clicking on appropriate link for your group)
5:30 PM Group Dinner
Session Notes
January 18th, 9:00 AM – Noon
Funders/Evaluation Learning Circles
I. Welcome Back and Reflections (30 minutes)
- Model what we are talking about
- How do we prepare for collective leadership in an individualistic society
- Sometimes is everyone is accountable then no one is accountable
II. Goals for the day (15 minutes)
III. Sneak Previews for the Consultative Sessions (15 minutes)
Session hosts will give a 5 minute preview of their session.
- Most important factors of being a good consultative session participant
- Trying to set a high level of trust and openness
- Be candid but respectful of course
- Draw from your own experience (but don't use the opportunity to advertise)
- Bare your project/organizational soul as much as you can to get the best results
IV. Consultative Sessions (90 Minutes – self monitor 15 minute break)
Teams will focus on how to design or strengthen the design of current evaluation efforts. Teams will apply learning from earlier sessions as they collectively develop approaches that will help programs learn about how to develop and assess the impact of collective leadership.
Projects for the Consultative Sessions:
- Kellogg Fellows for Community Change - Focus is catalyzing change in places or communities. Toying with idea of shift from collective leadership to community leadership for collective community change. Exploring tension between qualitative and quantitative evaluation. How much data is too much? What's it for? Designing longitudinal evaluation and getting others to make commitment to it? How do we involve the communities in the evaluation and help them to do their own evaluation. Involving youth as equal partners, for example youth brought strategy of digital storytelling to work that has been invaluable.
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation: Population Leadership Programs - What's the frame that's elastic enough to work in different countries and cultures? How do we align our strategy and action?
- SEED New York (click for notes) - There is a glass ceiling that often keeps organizations from getting to the next step/realize their potential (from ordinary to extraordinary). Have a model for breaking that, want to test it out/pilot.
V. Synthesize and Debrief the Session
As you reflect on your work, what did you learn about:
- How the evaluation approach itself contributes to or undermines collective leadership?
- What data collection approaches will best tell the story of collective leadership?
- What are benchmarks of collective leadership?
VI. Closing Reflections
Process: What worked or did not work in the process?
Reflection: One way that your thinking about collective leadership or its evaluation has shifted.
Noon – 1:00 PM Group Lunch
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