Goals for the Evaluation Learning Circle
- Deepen understanding of collective leadership by defining “stages of development” for various attributes/elements
- Identify approaches and tools for evaluating collective leadership and share experiences using them
- Consider what needs to change in the thinking and practice of evaluators for the potential of collective leadership to be more fully realized
- Set direction for Evaluation Circle work between now and Creating Space
Expanding Our Framework of Understanding for Collective Leadership
The purpose of this session is to deepen the framework that emerged from the morning session by identifying “stages of development” for the elements/attributes of collective leadership. Barry Kibel, SEED-NY worked with the group to look at the attributes for each element and determine whether this attribute is something they would (1) expect to see in a successful collective leadership effort; (2) like to see; or (3) love to see. These stages are not mutually exclusive; they can build on each other and/or overlap. Barry indicated that he was planning to take the work that the group does on this and turn it into a scorecard that can be tested with groups engaged in collective leadership.
Some concerns were raised about connecting the scorecard to the results of an initiative. Sometimes a group may score high on all the elements, but they are not getting anything done. Likewise, there are times when a group has to act quickly and get something done to be successful, even if it means they do not have time to build trust and achieve some of the other attributes of positive collective leadership.
The eight elements that small groups were working with included:
- Understandings of Collective Leadership: Moving from "I" to "We"
- Leadership Compact: Values and Capacities
- Shared Vision, Purpose and Responsibility
- Power, Oppression and Healing
- Group Process and Decision Making
- Energy, Emergence and Collective Action
- Networks and Systems
- Time, Connections, and History
Following are the results of group work on what they would "Expect to See;" "Like to See;" and "Love to See" for each element. A chart has also been created for easy download
Understandings of Collective Leadership: Moving From "I" to "We"
Love to See: Inclusive of other stakeholders; linking; internalization of self-organization; flow of lead and follow roles
Like to See: Beyond group bridges; group ownership of leadership role
Expect to See: Group identify and bonding; buy-in to funder facilitated process
Leadership Compact: Values, Awareness, and Capacities
Love to see: Reflective Practice Valued, Holding each other accountable for results, social intelligence
Like to see: Trust, Value Differences, Accountability to Group, Holding each other accountable for process
Expect to see: Open Dialogue, Respect, Tolerance for Difference
Shared Vision, Purpose and Responsibility
Love to See: People prepared to face a broad range of challenges; Synergy around purpose; Everyone welcomes responsibility and accountability
Like to See: Rich conversation; people share a calling; emerging clarity around action; alignment around purpose; shared ability to set direction; refine the vision
Expect to See: Shared vision; shared language
Power, Oppression and Healing
Love to See: Move from behavior to transformation; address issues of power directly; traditional leaders intentionally share/give up leadership; active healing
Like to See: Move from understanding to behavior; recognize and name issue/conflict/pain; traditional power leaders step back; "non-traditional" leaders take on leadership roles
Expect to See: Participants know they don't start from the same place; opportunity to learn/understand; power dynamics/leadership roles change
Group Process and Decision Making
Love to See: Group enters into a shared space of deep reflection and listening; meetings flow and are purposeful; 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; internalized value, nurtured over time, supports and structures are in place
Like to See: The group respects experimentation and learning from failure; shared respponsibility for process and decision making; integrated and interdependent
Expect to See: Group makes decisions about moving forward that resonates with all; assumes value of collective leadership
Energy, Emergence and Collective Action
Love to See: Self driven, organic; we released in all its fullness; spirit of abundance permeates; generative energy unleashed and sustained
Like to See: Transformation ~I>We; emergent order and convergence; confluence of ideas and ahas; reach new places within one's own capacity
Expect to See: Shared sense of purpose; non linear learning feedback loop; moving from scarcity to abundance
Networks and Systems
Love to See: Power of the collective depends on the quality of relationships; changes notions of accountaiblity; can constantly reframe hierarchy in a network
Like to See: Capacity to reach across and span boundaries
Expect to See: Groups highly aware of the systems nature of their work; openness to new input, new partnering and new ventures
Time, Connections and History
Love to See: Agreement on process for moving forward; affected persons share equally in policy decisions
Like to See: Shared values; inclusion of affected persons; information equity
Expect to See: Shared purpose; diversity; access
The Power of Storytelling and Narrative
Barry Kibel talked about using narratives/stories as a way of reflecting on a leadership journey.
- There is "journey mapping" software available that supports leaders to reflect on their journeys. The challenge is generalizing from the individual stories.
- Another useful approach is to collect stories and map them on to a theory of change. This gives rigor and value to the stories without compromising them.
- How do you replicate for the outside the actual journey people are going through? The change in language from "story" to "journey" is important. What is an effective story that transfers what you want to transfer? Need to be aware of distractions that might be in the story.
- Collective leadership - actors will change over time/story will change over time. Storytelling can be applied to weight the data.
- Storytelling can be used as not only an evaluative tool, but to build the collective leadership.
Sharing Promising Approaches and Tools for Evaluating Collective Leadership
We had the following goals for this session:
- Identify and discuss the promising approaches and tools for evaluating collective leadership (Review Some Promising Evaluation Approaches, Tools and Resources generated from the virtual inquiry)
- Share experiences using these approaches/tools – What worked? What didn’t? What else is needed?
Instead of sharing our practical experiences with tools and approaches, we had a more philosophical discussion about the context in which evaluations happen and the complexity of collective leadership.
Here are some things we discussed:
The value of systems approaches
Collective leadership is much more complex than the literature often leads us to believe. We need systems approachs and tools to capture this complexity. What have been useful approaches for communicating the systems nature of this work? Teri Behrens with Kellogg said that Kellogg has been using Systems Dynamics Models to understand its own work. It can't be because systems by their nature are non-linear. Teri Behrens refered participants to Kellogg site for a resource on systems modeling and she is working on a piece on systems change (American Journal on Community Psychology). A point was made that systems modeling is useful for looking retrospectively but it is not a very good creative or predictive tool. Also the point was made that you cannot do systems thinking from the outside in, you must look from the inside out.
The relationship between systems change and collective leadership
Often in foundation initiatives that are seeking systems change, efforts are made to create collaboratives, collectives, forced partnerships because the thinking is that this will create systems change. The comment was made that much of what gets labeled as systems change is actually systems creation/systems building. When diverse groups are brought together, they create a new system. Collective leadership can be used to build/create a system.
A comment was made that the funding system itself is based on competitiveness. How does this align with the idea of collective leadership? How is competition flying in the face of creating this notion of collective leadership? There is a larger system within which we seek change that influences these initiatives and programs. We need to pay attention to that.
Compatibility between systems theory and linear causality
Is systems theory and linear causality compatible? There are cause and effects relationships that are linear, but they occur within a system that is non-linear.
Reflections on the nature of collective leadership evaluation
- Many of the listed tools have a visual aspect to them - maybe, we need to use different modalities to demonstrate collective leadership.
- We need to use tools that engage the whole person.
- It's important to take the visual and qualitative and translate it into "data." Films is one way to do that, you can evoke emotions by inviting people with prompts such as "I felt that . . "
- The EvaluLEAD model's heart and soul is to demonstrate that in order to evaluate transformational change you need to go to that evocative place.
For whom are we evaluating collective leadership
How many of these evaluation approaches are in response to the information and knowledge that foundations and boards want as opposed to the organization being funded?
Using participatory approaches
If we are evaluating collective leadership, shouldn't we have a collective leadership approach to the evaluation? How much of one? For example, working with an evaluation team that actively involves stakeholders. How do you get the funding to think and practice in a more participatory way? It is very expensive and time consuming. If we are going to use this approach we have to be able to slow down.
Return on investment
What is the return on the investment of collective leadership development? How would we go about addressing the need to know an answer to this question? This is a question asked a lot in the corporate sector. Will this be a question that gets increasingly asked about philanthropic work?
Accountability and capacity-building
Just building capacity of groups around the table is not building community benefit. Some foundations found that funding organizations to build capacity often left the community behind.
Developing collective leadership: what does it take?
Where can we find those great success stories about how to develop collective leadership?
We may be getting to the place that we know what's necessary but not what is sufficient to support collective leadership. We need more research to get better at predicting the degree of community benefit that certain interventions will have. How do we know what is the minimum bundle of investments that will make a difference?
Additional tools that were mentioned
- GIS Mapping presents data about a neighborhood or other geographic area using visual tools. One example was the creation of a map to show where various foundations were funding in order to illustrate where there were overlaps in the region and where there were gaps.
- Results-based accountability is an approach that works especially well when you are in an environment of accountability where sustainable results, "turning the curve," or "closing the gap" is required.
What Needs to Change in the Thinking and Practice of Evaluation to Better Support Collective Leadership
This session sought to address the following questions:
- How do we use evaluation to better support collective leadership?
- What in our current evaluation thinking and practice needs to change?
- What is our greatest aspiration for how evaluation will be different five years from now?
Make evaluation part of the intervention
- Leadership programs that focus on developing policy leadership seem to be best at developing data gathering and analysis skills among participants
- Are leadership programs and the participants in those programs evaluation ready? Are programs and people using data to change their program or to alter their behavior.
- Groups need to be in a learning mode in order to value what evaluation might bring
Make evaluation more participatory
- Fundamentally, evaluation needs to be participatory - this is a fundamental shift, but one that is beginning to occur
- It is very expensive and a high investment in time to do an evaluation that is combined with learning (e.g., bringing together funders/grantees, etc.).
- Need to be clear with in setting expectations about the evaluation and grounding those in reality.
Link outcomes and program elements
- Evaluators are not so good at articulating exactly what part of a program is related to what outcome.
Focus on results
- Foundations tend to look at the big indicators, e.g., the results.
- Language of results-based accountability (RBA) resonates with funders and with "residents groups."
- For the RBA approach to work you have to be in an environment of accountability.
Setting Future Direction
- What directions have emerged during the day that we think are promising to explore between now and Creating Space?
- What do we (the Evaluation Learning Circle) want to do at Creating Space?
Many in the group wanted to experiment with and continue developing a tool for evaluating collective leadership. Two frameworks are available for you to use, adapt, and discuss. We are hoping to continue to evolve these when we meet at Creating Space VIII. (Click on the following links and the documents will download to your computer.)
Other suggestions included:
- Generating a list of burning questions about evaluating collective leadership. We invite you to add your burning question.
- Using a case example and collectively coming up with an evaluation approach and design
- Taking our best theory about what collective leadership is and then mapping program elements/activities to the various dimensions where we are seeking results
- Collect and share curricula, frameworks, theories of change about collective leadership (as tools are put up also share info about cost of using them)
What are your thoughts, ideas, and questions? Please share them using the comment button above.
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