Resources & Publications

Leadership programs can help solve racial inequalities in access to education, healthcare, income and wealth, but many current approaches to leadership development actually maintain and promote racial inequalities. The report, How to Develop and Support Leadership that Contributes to Racial Justice, suggests that a large number of leadership programs associate leadership with equal opportunity and individualism. This thinking does not recognize that current systems (i.e. policy, culture and institutional practices) can cause racial identity to limit one’s access to life opportunities. It also focuses too narrowly on changing the behavior of individual leaders. Instead, leadership programs should: 1) make their programs more accessible for people of color; 2) help participants understand how race limits the access to opportunities – in other words, the impact of structural racism; and 3) promote collective leadership. This approach will help participants work together to tackle the systems that maintain racial inequalities.

Authors: Think.Do.Repeat.; Maggie Potapchuk, Terry Keleher, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR)., Ph.D., MP Associates; Professor john a. powell, Leadership Learning Community (LLC); Elissa Perry, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; and Hanh Cao Yu, Center for Assessment and Policy Development (CAPD); Deborah Meehan, Applied Research Center (ARC); Sally Leiderman

Subjects: Leadership & Race

07/01/2010 - 00:00 - 0 comments - 0 attachments - Posted by LLC Staff

We are lifting up the Leadership in Action Program (LAP) as our first case study for the Task Force for several reasons: 1.) the program has shown dramatic results in school readiness for children in Baltimore achieved in less than two years, 2.) they have consciously developed and tested their working assumptions through multiple iterations of program implementation to develop a solid theoretical base for their work, 3.) they are attempting to achieve population level results rather than focusing on individual development or stronger organizations. The Leadership in Action Program sponsored by Annie E. Casey brings together a diverse group of stakeholder focused on achieving a specific result. The foundation chooses an anchor institution to partner with, a city task force, a citizen group, a governor’s subcommittee. The anchor organization helps to recruit 40 participants who are chosen based on their ability to help make change happen, the resources they can bring to the table, and their positions in key organizations. It’s a diverse group from government, nonprofits, residents, faith based community, child advocates, and community leaders who all share a commitment to the well-being of kids and families. For example, one LAP program focused on preparing children in the city of Baltimore to enter school ready to learn.

Authors: LLC Staff

Subjects: Leadership in Action Program

02/01/2013 - 01:00 - 0 comments - 1 attachment - Posted by LLC Staff

As part of the Leadership for a New Era (LNE) initiative, the Leadership Learning Community has partnered with thought leaders in the network development and leadership development fields to develop the cutting edge report Leadership and Networks: New Ways of Developing Leadership in a Highly Connected World. This publication is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This report is written for those who run and fund leadership programs that develop and support leadership for social change. It shares many examples of how leaders using network strategies are increasing the impact of social change work, such as the Barr Fellowship Network and MomsRising.org. Our goal is to inspire and help hundreds of leadership programs to question their assumptions about the traditional leadership models and retool their approaches in ways that will enable them to better prepare those in leadership with the mindset and skills they will need to more fully leverage network strategies. Specifically, the report addresses the following questions: Why do network strategies deserve our attention? Why do we need a new leadership mindset? What are the core principles of leading with a network mindset? What leadership development strategies support a network mindset and skills?

Authors: The primary authors of this publication are Deborah Meehan and Claire Reinelt from the Leadership Learning Community. The report was developed in partnership with co-authors Beth Tener, New Directions Collaborative; Diana Scearce, David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Eugene Eric Kim, Groupaya; Gibrán Rivera, Interaction Institute for Social Change; June Holley, Network Weaver; Nance Goldstein, PhD, CPC, Principal at Working Wisely Group; Patti Anklam, Net Work; and Natalia Castañeda Chaux, Leadership Learning Community. Steve Waddell, Networking Action, and Grady McGonagill, McGonagill Consulting, also contributed to this report.

Subjects: leadership, networks

11/07/2012 - 01:00 - 0 comments - 1 attachment - Posted by admin

So many dollars, so many plans, and so many committed people—and still poor outcomes for children, families and communities. The Theory of Aligned Contributions attempts to articulate the necessary conditions needed to bridge the gap between desired results and current reality in complex adaptive systems. This powerpoint presentation describes the hypotheses being tested in the Leadership in Action Program, lessons learned, and evaluation methods.

Authors: Victoria Goddard Truitt

Subjects: action learning, evidence-based practice, leadership in action, annie e. casey

11/01/2010 - 00:00 - 0 comments - 1 attachment - Posted by Claire Reinelt

Current economic conditions have increased pressure on foundations to optimize their investments. This article offers a tool for doing this in an area of high leverage: leadership development. It offers a framework for assessing a foundation’s current approach in this area that reflects the rising significance of collective leadership. This article is based on an in-depth review of leadership development practices carried out by one of the authors in three sectors – government, business, and social – as well as in the emerging multistakeholder sector. It reflects as well another of the authors’ experiences evaluating leadership development programs and initiatives that have vastly different purposes, and co-creating with funders and evaluators a framework for assessing leadership investments that can guide program and evaluation design.

Authors: Grady McGonagill, Claire Reinelt

Subjects: leadership, investment framework

06/01/2011 - 00:00 - 0 comments - 1 attachment - Posted by Natalia Castaneda