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Five Suggestions About the Kind of Leadership That Will Move us Forward

Submitted by Deborah Meehan on Wed, 11/30/2016 - 00:55
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I find myself looking for inspiration these days, and thankfully it’s not hard to find. I draw inspiration from the protectors at Standing Rock who are standing firm in the face of freezing temperatures and violent assaults. Serendipitously, as I was driving home I also found myself recently listening to Congressmen John Lewis in an interview recognizing his work in the civil rights movement. In response to comments about his sacrifices and courage, he humbly reminded listeners that there was only one choice if you wanted to be on the right side of history. His comments resonated because this does feel like a historic moment where we are in danger of losing ground in gains made over the past decades, or where we will stand against injustice and hatred and usher in a new era of increased equity and humanity. This is a big charge that calls for leadership, but what kind? Like many of you, we have been trying to figure out where we can make the most important contributions to thinking about leadership and the practice of leadership that will help to move us forward as a society. This will be a long process and for now I have five suggestions to share and would appreciate your feedback. read more »

Resources for Grassroots Leadership From The Community Connections Grant Program

Submitted by Miriam Persley on Mon, 10/31/2016 - 17:41
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In the past, we’ve highlighted the work of Community Connections as a model for us to learn from. We even worked together to host our last Creating Space together. As many of you may recall, Community Connections works to empower communities to create change by granting funds to local projects. Their model requires community-led proposal analyses via panels. They grant on average between $500-$5,000 for projects and these seed funds, in turn, create avenues for nontraditional leadership development. Being on the ground, Community Connections develops individuals and teams as part of whole communities. They meet individuals where they are and respond quickly to the needs of six specific neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan. read more »

 
 
 

Mindfulness Matters | An Interview with Patrick Brown

Submitted by Deborah Meehan on Mon, 10/31/2016 - 17:14
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I was especially excited to interview Patrick Brown, Director of the Leadership Academy at Greenlining Institute, for our Mindfulness Matters column when I learned that he, as someone who directs a leadership academy with multiple programs, also has a strong personal meditation practice. I expected to gain important insights about the ways in which mindfulness practices support leadership development from Patrick. I did and I am sure you will as well.

 

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How to Scale Your Leadership Development Work: Three Lessons from Experiments with Delivery Strategies

Submitted by Deborah Meehan on Mon, 10/31/2016 - 17:02
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When I reluctantly read the newspaper these days, I am sadly reminded of how desperately we need leadership (and lots of it) that can bring us together to heal the divides, close the wealth gap, and stop our destruction of the planet. Although there are thousands of social sector leadership programs in the country we reach and support only a small fraction of people who want to lead.

 

I like ‘what if’ statements, so here it goes. Most of us are working on problems of such magnitude, we have to operate from the frame that all we can do is ‘our part’ and we hope that if we are strategic about it that our piece of the work, along with the efforts of others, will get us where we are hoping to go. I get this. And, I also wonder how we are going to change the world, one leader at a time, reaching thousands when we need to mobilize millions. What if we were to individually and collectively challenge ourselves to figure out how we can support and unleash the energy of everyone who wants to take action with others to make the world a more equitable, sane and sustainable place where all can thrive? read more »

Update Your Racial Justice Toolkit

Submitted by Miriam Persley on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 13:12
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For what may feel like the first time in decades, race is at the center of a national conversation. Many credit social media as one of the reasons more and more of us are instantly aware of racially-charged injustices. 
 
Many are now talking about solutions to systemic racism. For instance, Shaun King has proposed solutions for police brutality in a series of 25 articles. However, as long as those charged with creating and enforcing these systems continue to embody the remnants of racism, these injustices will always resurface. How can we keep this from happening? This week, the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) proposed that this change must happen collectively from “everyday leaders.”
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Another Take on Leadership Development Action Learning Projects: Could a Network Seed Fund Approach Work?

Submitted by Deborah Meehan on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 04:27
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‘Hands on’ learning and application are important principles of how adults learn, so many leadership programs incorporate a learning action project. Maybe yours is one of them. There are different names for these projects that require the leadership participant (and sometimes teams of participants from the same program) to come up with a project through which they will apply what they are learning. These projects usually align with the leadership program’s larger purpose. For example, if the leadership program is focused on health equity, the learning action projects would be intended to contribute to improving health equity in addition to providing an opportunity for participants to hone their skills as they put them to use on the project. There are several inherent challenges often expressed by leadership program participants:
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Mindfulness Matters | RESOURCE: Mindful Leadership Summit 2016

Submitted by LLC Staff on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 04:08
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Our board advisor, Don Lauro, forwarded the following opportunity. Given our commitment to Mindful Leadership, we also wanted to share this opportunity with you. The Mindful Leadership Summit takes place in Washington DC, November 3-6. 

More details on this Summit here. 

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LLC Webinar | A New Take on Scale: Matching the reach of your leadership work to your social purpose With Ed O'Malley

Submitted by LLC Staff on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 03:26
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In partnership with the International Leadership Association, LLC is excited to present this webinar.

 

November 15, 2016

11:00am-12:00 pm Pacific | 2:00 pm Eastern

 

The Kansas Leadership Center has set out to change the civic culture of the state and to do this requires working at a scale of huge magnitude. This drives everything: their assumptions about leadership; humility about their own capacity and the need to partner and give their curriculum away; and the need to experiment with delivery strategies. KLC now directly trains 2,000 people a year  AND upwards of 40,000 people have had access to their core programming. Join a virtual conversation with KLC President Ed O'Malley to hear about their experiments, challenges and innovations being driven by a commitment to scale.
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Leadership Webinar Series | Materials for Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Curriculum

Submitted by LLC Staff on Wed, 08/31/2016 - 16:36
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Date: October 27, 2016 | 11:00 - 12:00pm Pacific | 2:00 PM - 3:00pm Eastern

     

CAPD, MP Associates and World Trust have recently launched the Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Capacity training curriculum online, (link - https://www.racialequitytools.org/module/overview/transforming-white-pri...), through the Racial Equity Tools website and community (link - https://www.racialequitytools.org). The curriculum was created to help formal and informal leaders identify, talk productively about and intervene to address white privilege and its consequences, in all of their many spheres of influence.

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Seeking Everyday Opportunities To Be Network-Like

Submitted by Miriam Persley on Wed, 08/31/2016 - 16:23
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In the past few days, I have been a part of conversations with groups who are working to address racial injustices both locally and nationally. Interestingly regardless of scale, one of the recurring themes heard during these meetings centered on the tension between a network mindset and an organizational mindset. These groups are not the only ones talking about this; I’ve heard many different conversations embark on these same around partnership in the leadership development field.

I personally find that it’s helpful to identify these tensions to make informed decisions that truly align with our stated intent and values. However, this tension seems to come up in the most unexpected ways, so here is a short cheat sheet to help you know when you might be in the middle of one these conversations and decision points.

Here are some of the things you might start to hear in the room:

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