Leadership for A New Era: What We Learned About Using a Webinar to Attract and Reach Out to New Networks

Expanding LLC's reach and networks

LLC staff wants to thank everyone who participated in our first Leadership for a New Era (LNE) webinar during which we introduced and invited peers to join with the Leadership Learning Community to shape and create the LNE initiative.  (A copy of our webinar slides are attached below.) Our outreach efforts included personal contact, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.  We significantly extended our network with these outreach efforts and attracted people committed to transforming the leadership culture in a number of different arenas, including social justice, service, climate change, and internationally.

The connection between LLC and LNE
The call helped us realize the potential reach of what we are envisioning and caused us to reflect on how we position LNE, and to be more explicit about how LNE and LLC are linked but different.  LNE is an LLC initiative but its potential for forming partnerships among a wide range of stakeholders who are committed to influencing how leadership is supported extend beyond our current networks.  Historically the strength of our networks have been among those who are primarily committed  to advancing social equity and social justice through leadership development in communities and fields, mostly in the U.S. A lot of LLC learning has been around how to support leadership that is inclusive, crosses boundaries, forms networks and acts collectively in these contexts.  While we believe that critical learning about how to be radically inclusive, organize and align across boundaries, unleash networks, and create movements for change has the potential to transform systems of thought and practice towards greater equity, justice, and sustainability, we also recognize the potential power of connecting our thinking and practice with others working in different arenas so that we can significantly increase our collective impact.

Framing the LNE initiative

We realized that in telling the story of how LLC came to launch this initiative, during the call, we may have framed the context for LNE too narrowly.  The driving principle of LNE is to transform leadership culture in a direction that is more inclusive, collective, and networked.  LLC’s lens is social justice and social equity in communities, primarily those located in the U.S.; however, there are many other lenses that people and organizations have for learning and practicing leadership, and our collective learning about leadership in this era extends widely across all of them.  The purpose of LNE is to attract and connect a much broader range of voices and perspectives so that we can learn from one another and align our efforts in ways that haven’t happened before. 

Creating virtual community
What will it take to do this?  One of the challenges is how to organize virtual communities that enable us to engage in honest dialogue, challenge each other’s thinking, and move towards greater understanding and alignment.  While we will take advantage of existing venues to connect face-to-face, much of our work will be using technology. 

We are experimenting with organizing a virtual community at Leadership for a New Era.  We welcome you to help us create and steward this community so we can all learn from each other about how to do this better.

• What practices do you think best support virtual community organizing? 
• How can LNE become a space that attracts and provides opportunities for all of us to leverage our efforts by connecting them with others? 
• How do we learn and lead together in new ways?